The Shy Jinchuuriki
by Mr. Alaska
Summary: What if Naruto Uzumaki wasn't confident and as outgoing? What if he was scared, shy, timid and nervous? And what if Hinata Hyuuga was confident, brave and couragous? How will those factors change the Naruto universe? Check it out and leave reviews.
1. The Beginning

Rating: M

Pairing: NaruHina

Author's Notes: Hey there everybody. It's the coolest writer straight out of the final frontier, the Naruto fan of the North, MR. ALASKA!! I decided to take on a little challenge, purposed by Angeus. Where Naruto has a complete personality change. In this story, Naruto is basically Hinata…. And Hinata is basically Naruto. You know? Naruto being shy, timid, attachment issues, nervousness, etc. And Hinata is loud, hard headed, annoying, hyperactive, etc. Here are the conditions of the challenge. This story starts right before the graduation.

Conditions: No yaoi, no good Sasuke, no Harem (he's going to have enough problems with one girl), no 'over-night' change for Naruto, no Naruto/older women (ex. Anko, Kurenai, or Tsunade), while I would prefer a Naruto/Temari, I won't insist.

Hope you all like this story, just like you liked all my other stories. Hartman out!

Chapter 1: The Beginning

It was a beautiful, sunny day in the village of Konohagakure. But for some soon to be shinobis, they will be spending the most of the day in class, finishing out their final day there.

"OK class…" Iruka sensei shouted over the chattering teens. "Settle down, so we can get started!" The entire class, in unison, let out a tired sigh. Ignoring the routine daily sigh, the scared face man began the lecture about various types of Jutsu.

Before starting, he surveyed the students he's been teaching for four years, remembering all the good times. Remembering all the fun he had teaching them, all the challenging Go matches he played against the unenthusiastic, yet brilliant Shikamaru Nara. But while scanning the happy and care free faces, he came across the only unhappy face. The face of the "Dead-last" ignored pariah Naruto Uzumaki.

The poor bland sat in the upper corner of the class, with no one behind him, and not in anyone's way. The boy was known as "The Demon Brat" or "The Unwanted Child" and any other nasty and spiteful name the villagers could think up. He had that name, because inside him was the most feared and most powerful demon to ever walk the earth…the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

12 years earlier, during Naruto's birth, the village of Konohagakure was attacked by the Nine-Tailed Fox, killing many of shinobi and villagers alike. Nothing could stop the mighty creature. The only way to stop him from attacking and destroying the village was the sacrifice of the 4th Hokage, Minato Namikaze…Naruto's father.

In sacrificing himself in a Kinjutsu, he was able to trap the dangerous monster inside the stomach of his newborn son. But in doing so, Minato lost his life, along with his wife Kushina Namikaze who died in giving birth to Naruto.

Minato's last wish was simple.

"_Let it be known that on this day, I pass on my legacy onto this boy, Naruto. He shall be praised for the sacrifice he will make, for it will be far worse then mine. He will carry with him the dreaded Kyuubi no Kitsune from destroying Konohagakure, and killing all it's inhabitance. He shall be known as a hero from keeping the beast from seeing the light of day, and should not be shunned or hated. I chose this way for him…for this is the only way he will survive. My only regret…is that I will not be around to see him become a skilled and courageous shinobi…."_

But despite his wishes, after the attack, the villagers were filled with the only elements that their beloved Hokage couldn't take with him in his sacrifice.

Sorrow and rage.

Many innocent people were killed in the seemingly unstoppable onslaught. Many of brave shinobi were slaughtered in the battle field, leaving behind sad stricken families and friends. And unfortunately, there was only one thing they could aim their emotions at…. Naruto.

Since the third Hokage, Sarutobi, came out of retirement and took the title of Hokage again, he made it a law not to harm the boy. He said the punishment of harming the boy, without reasonable cause was punishable by death or imprisonment for life. The message was clear, and no villager of vengeful shinobi attacked him.

But instead, they tortured him in indirect methods.

Naruto Uzumaki grew up in a orphanage, which was almost over crowded. Many of the orphans there WERE orphaned because their parents were killed in the Kyuubi attack. And while growing up, the people "Taking care of him" encouraged the other orphan children to hate and shun Naruto, for reasons they wouldn't say.

And after a life of being hated and despised, poor Naruto became constantly frightened. He became a popular target for bullies, who were coached by their parents to hate the boy, just as the other kids. He was always shy, timid…and nervous around other people. The people mistreating him always called him "Demon" or "Monster" and Naruto wasn't able to understand why.

All he knew was that he was different…but didn't know why.

When Naruto came to the academy, he never so much as spoke a word to anyone, not even Iruka sensei, who had absolutely nothing against him. He lost both parents in the attack of the Nine-Tailed Fox, but he never blamed Naruto for his suffering. Iruka blamed the Kyuubi Kitsune for taking his mother and father away, not it's container.

But neither the less, the boy stayed to himself for all the four years he'd been going to the academy. Sure, he ended up speaking every once in a while, but when he did, it came out as mumbles and stutters.

He wanted to help the boy…but didn't know how to go about it. So, he got be to reality, and focused more on his work.

However, while Iruka was writing on the blackboard, his razor sharp ears picked up the sound of a certain kunoichi whispering to someone. The alleged kunoichi, being well known for her constant antics and the heir to the Hyuuga clan, Hinata Hyuuga.

"Lady Hyuuga!" Iruka growled. "Will you please reframe from talking to Ino while class is in session? I know it's close to your graduation…but you need to start acting like the kunoichi you are." Hinata, along with her long time friend Ino Yamanaka giggled, but looked back at their sensei with a straight, and innocent look.

For being the daughter of one of the most respected clan leaders of Konohagakure, the girl was nothing like her fellow clan members.

She had a overactive imagination. Always pulling rude…but sometimes humorous pranks on the villagers, she was dubbed "The White Eyed Prankster" and lived up to it. From spray painting rude words and phrases on the sides of building, to desecrating the Hokage stone faces.

She wore a pair of dark blue slacks, with a Shuriken holster attached to her right thigh. The light brown heavy coat was also far from what the Hyuuga dress code. Normally, the famous Hyuuga clan would wear the clothes of a true ninja, with no hint of color to them.

"Oh come on, Iruka sensei." Hinata wined. "This should be our day to have fun. We've been coming her for four straight years! We DESERVE to goof off today, since tomorrow will be us meeting our team and new sensei's. give us at least that much." Many other Gennins agreed with the Hyuuga girl.

'Believe me…. I DESERVE a break….' Iruka thought bitterly, as he rubbed his temples at their demands for a free day. "Please Hinata…bare with me and this w….."

"That's _LADY _Hinata to you, sensei." Hinata corrected, causing the rest of the class to burst into laughter. Hinata was known for cracking jokes when it came down to how to be addressed. Some of the teachers found her sense of humor rather annoying, while other found it very refreshing…whatever that meant.

Normally, Iruka would scold anyone any one of his other students for talking to him in that manner. But he didn't with the Hyuuga heir. And the reason behind that wasn't because of the fact she was heir to the Hyuuga clan, or daughter of Hiashi Hyuuga, the current head of the Hyuuga clan.

No. the reason for that was because Hinata Hyuuga found a strange interest in Naruto. Iruka suspected it to be a crush of some sort, but with Hinata, he couldn't be sure.

Hinata was always confident and willing to stick her neck out…. Hugging the attention, in Iruka's book. But oddly enough, she is among the only students his age that will even speak to him…in a none threatening way. There hasn't been one day where Naruto's personal tormentor/bully, Sasuke Uchiha and his fan girls hadn't humiliated Naruto in one way or another.

They normally stuck to calling him "Orphan Uzumaki" or "Neglected Naruto" and any other nickname that referred to his unpleasant early life. But on some occasions, Hinata would come to his defense and stand up to his attackers. Iruka smiled when he suddenly remembered a very interesting incident that happened the year before.

**FLASHBACK**

It was during recess, when all the children were running around, enjoying themselves. Naruto, of course, stayed by himself, on the side where he was almost out of sight.

_Almost_, because he was eventually discovered by Sasuke and his little gang of followers. Mainly girls who thought he was "Their true love" and other bullies who also took pleasure in bullying the timid blond. Naruto sat behind a tree growing on the school grounds, eating his lunch, completely isolated from everyone else. The same thing every day…rice balls and tea. A lunch, similar to a vast majority of his fellow classmate's lunches. Naruto was so fixated on NOT sticking out, that he was willing to even eat the same food as everyone else.

But even so, that helped him very little when it came down to the vengeful Uchiha survivor. "Hey, Uzumaki!" The raven haired boy bellowed. Naruto's eyes popped open when he heard his name called by the boy who bullied him for so long. He hesitantly turned, and saw Sasuke, plus a group of girls walking his way.

"Wh…what is it, S…Sasuke?" The Jinchuuriki asked, in his whisper loud voice. Pretending that he didn't hear the blonde's response, Sasuke placed his hand behind his ear.

"I'm sorry…what was that, Homeless?" Evil snickers came from his little group. So Naruto repeated himself, a little louder then before…. Only for the same response from the cruel classmate. "Come on, Orphan…what was that? Speak up!" Then without warning, Sasuke kicked dirt and bits of grass in Naruto's face, and onto his half eaten lunch.

The whole time, the instructors that were SUPPOSED to be watching over the children purposely looked the other way when some kids decided to torture Naruto.

The other kids decided to join in and started kicking dirt on Naruto. Said boy pleaded and begged for them to stop. But his pleads fell on deaf ears, and only fueled their desire to gang up on him. By this time, Iruka's turn to look over the children came. He walked outside, and caught sight of what was going down. Right before he jumped in to stop….

Hinata beat him to it.

In a flash, the confident girl appeared out of nowhere and delivered a palm strike to Sasuke's chest. No chakra was being pumped out, but the contact still managed to send the Uchiha stumbling backwards. He stumbled and tripped, ultimately falling onto his following fan girls. And when Sasuke looked up, Hinata was standing over him, with her Byakugan activated.

"Hmm…. What kind of shinobi travels with overwhelming numbers to gang up on a innocent boy….? Oh, that's right…only a Uchiha would sink that low." She began in a matter-of-fact tone. "You know, it isn't wise to gang up on people. Because Karma has a funny way of turning around and biting you in the butt." The insult on his family's name caused Sasuke to bolt right up to his feet, and meeting Hinata's colorless eyes with his.

"Walk away, _Hyuuga._" Venom was literally dripping off every word as he spoke. "This doesn't concern you…why don't you just run along and…."

POW!!!!!!

Another palm strike. This time, directly in the face. And the force of the chakra-less attack was enough to arouse a bloody nose on Sasuke's part. Sakura Haruno, also known as Sasuke's 1 fan girl ran to his side, turned and sent a glare aimed directly at Hinata.

"What's your problem, you white eyed freak?!" The pink haired girl demanded, helping Sasuke to his feet. Hinata looked at Sakura, and grinned devilishly.

"My _Problem…_is you stuck up boyfriend being a bully. Anyone who gangs up on one person, who WON'T fight back, is no better the trash. And the fact that he's an Uchiha only makes him that more worthless…" The Hyuuga and Uchiha clan had had a form of family feud for as long as they could remember. It is unknown as to what started it…but one thing was for sure.

The other was egger to END it, in one form or another.

Sasuke was about to counter, when Iruka sensei appeared. Sasuke tried to blame everything on Hinata…but Iruka said he saw everything. Iruka said she was defending Naruto, and HE and his friends were at fault. He then sent them to detention for the remainder of lunch, and ordered for them to stay afterwards. Iruka thanked Hinata, and walked off so that the other children wouldn't think he was playing Favorites.

Hinata then looked down and looked at Naruto. His clothes were covered in bits of grass and large clumps of dirt. His food was soiled, and inedible. But the weirdest thing was, Naruto's expression. His face was void of any emotion. He wore only a blank stare.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" The Hyuuga began in a joking tone. Her attempt at a joke was answered with nothing but a slow nod.

"S…sorry. I…I don't l…like t…talking…….. B…but thank you." He said in a quiet voice. And unlike everyone else, Hinata didn't have to have Naruto repeat himself.

"Welcome…Naruto-kun, right?" The part where the strange girl added '-kun' got Naruto's attention. The blond blushed a little, and looked away.

"Umm…yeah." Then the girl smiled brightly.

"The name is Hinata…Hinata Hyuuga." But before she could try to have a conversation with the quiet boy, the bell rang, signaling the end of recess. Hinata waited for Naruto to dust himself off, and they walked back in.

**END FLASHBACK**

Every since then, Hinata has been trying to get Naruto to come out of his shell. And where as he's no where near as enthusiastic or confident as her, or any other person in the class, Naruto has improved…. But by very little.

He still reframes from making himself known, if possible. If no one talks to him, he doesn't even attempt to start one. But when he is drawn into a conversation, he participates. He still stutters, and rarely finishes a sentence…but Iruka considered the fact the timid boy was finally talking a blessing, and silently thanked the Hyuuga. She, along with a few of her own friends started joining Naruto when lunch came, ultimately smashing any cowardly attempt Sasuke had of tormenting him.

But when Iruka found himself losing focus in class, he shook his head, and continued the lesson plan for the day.

**SIX HOURS LATER**

"Finally! No more school!!" Ino cried, as she, Hinata, Naruto, Chouji Akimichi and Kiba Inuzuka walked home together. Walking home together became a after school tradition for the five friends. They were also friendly towards the blond. None of their parents ever told them to frown down upon Naruto, or to treat him differently. They were friends with Hinata, and to them, any friend of Hinata was a friend of theirs.

"I know what you mean, man…" Kiba sighed, as he petted his little white puppy, Akamaru, who was sitting up on his head. "Iruka sensei has practically plowed me into the ground this year. Surprise pop-quizzes, extra homework, extra everything! It's like the man hates me!" Hinata, Chouji, and Ino turned and stared blankly at the feral boy.

"WE had to do all that stuff too, dude. And all of that was because YOU wouldn't stop pulling pranks on him!"

"For the last time…I. WASN'T. ME!! It was little Miss Prankster over here!" He snarled, pointing directly at Hinata. With a sly grin on her face, she replied in a calm voice.

"Me? Prank honorable Iruka sensei? How absurd…. And besides, you can't prove it." Ino and Chouji laughed, Kiba huffed, and Hinata could've sworn she saw Naruto stifling a laugh.

"Oh my GOD!" She pretended to sound shocked. "Orangey is laughing! He CAN laugh!" Naruto was called that for wearing his traditional orange and blue jumpsuit. One time, Hinata asked him why he wore such colors. He said it was his favorite color, and liked it. But that wasn't true. He received the oddly colored jumpsuit while growing up in the orphanage. He needed new clothes, and the people there wanted to get him something…un-ninja like. Something that isn't made for sneaky missions. And they hoped that a bright orange color would make Naruto's chances of dying while on a mission even more high.

"Umm…we st…still need t…to do the f…final examination…." Naruto reminded in a weak voice. Because of his severe lack of confidence, Naruto never could successfully perform a Jutsu. He would always second guess himself, and end up doing it wrong. And when that happened, either Sasuke of Sakura would shout something insulting aloud, embarrassing the Jinchuuriki even further. And the reason behind that just wasn't because of his lack of confidence. The main reason was his prisoner….

The seal Minato placed on Naruto didn't just imprison the beast. The seal also had to keep his regular chakra, and the Kyuubi's chakra in check. So that the Kyuubi's chakra doesn't leak out, the seal is there to keep it that way…. But it also had another side effect. Naruto's and the fox's chakra goes through his body at the same time. So the seal also suppresses some of his chakra as well. Thus, causing Naruto to have difficulties performing various types of Jutsu's.

Hinata raised her eyebrow, and walked up next to the shy shinobi in training. "Come on, Naruto-kun…. You'll do fine. All you have to do is believe in yourself." Her words were comforting…but not as effective as she hoped. Iruka and Hinata have been telling him that for so long, but Naruto continued to have troubles.

And you couldn't become a Gennin, unless you are able to pass the required tests.

"Would you like me to give you a few pointers?" Kiba asked. Naruto looked at him, and shook his head. But thanked him for offering. Hinata was about to offer to give him some advice, but then decided against it. She knew the boy was self-conscious, and knew that if everybody started to get him unwanted advice, it's only make his confidence level plummet.

So, she merely patted him on the back, and wished him luck, as she and her friends went their separate ways, and walked home.

**THE NEXT DAY**

At the academy, the sounds of excited new shinobi and kunoichi alike filled the classrooms. There wasn't a single person who hadn't passed the exiting examination. Hinata earned hers head protector, and wore it proudly on her forehead. Most kunoichis wore their protectors around their necks…

But then again…Hinata wasn't most kunoichis.

The white eyed girl was quite strange, in her own way. While she showed signs of being a major Tom-boy, she could be the sweetest girl. She had her own moments where she did, in fact, act like any other preteen you'd run into. She scanned the classroom, in search of her shy friend. But to her disappointment, he wasn't in sight.

She asked Iruka if he'd seen him earlier that morning, but he said no. she then turned to Ino, who just received her head protector. "Do you know where Naruto-kun is?"

"No…not yet. He should've been here…. Do you think he might've skipped?" Hinata let out a un-lady like snort of laughter.

"Naruto-kun wouldn't skip on graduation day…. Would he?" Her once confident smirk turned curious. She's noticed how unmotivated Naruto sounded yesterday. He, as everyone knew, wasn't good at surprise exercises that required using Jutsu's. And sometimes, when kids thought they'd just embarrass themselves if they came, WOULD skip. "I hope he doesn't……"

And as if on cue……

Naruto, still wearing his orange jumpsuit, slowly entered the classroom, with a uncertain look on his face. Sasuke and Sakura shot out their daily insults about him being a orphan and being unwanted. Naruto, as predicted, looked away…not wanting trouble.

"Naruto-kun! You came!" Hinata called, waving her hand. "We thought you weren't come…." He calls were interrupted when a instructor called out Naruto's name. it was Iruka, with a small smile on his face.

"Come on, Naruto." Without saying a word, the Jinchuuriki walked pass the other kids, and into the examination room.

**20 MINUTES LATER**

"What is taking him so long?" Kiba asked. "It doesn't normally take someone this long to finish the exam. Are they giving him a different set of examinations then us?" He asked the question to not one person in particular…more to anyone who'd answer.

"Yeah…the "Dead-last" gets special exams." Sasuke answered coldly. This sparked a sudden anger in Hinata…as did to Kiba, Ino and Chouji. "He's probably being tested on his aim with Shuriken and Kunai…since that's the ONLY thing he's half decent at." Sakura giggled beside him.

"Yeah. Even if he does become a ninja…there's no way in hell he'll ever amount to anything. He's scared, timid, nervous all the time…" The pink haired kunoichi began naming off the negative qualities of Naruto. But she stopped, when she noticed that a certain Hyuuga heir had activated her Byakugan, and was glaring directly at her.

It's rare, by rumor, to cause a Hyuuga to activate their "All seeing eyes" without provoking them into a fight. They prided themselves in being as passive and as neutral as possible. Activating one's Byakugan, in it self, meant a challenge was purposed…and accepted.

And again, Hinata was NOT most Hyuugas.

Secretly, Hinata took much pleasure making other people fear her. Her enlarged colorless pupils and the throbbing veins around her eyes gave her a rather menacing look. This, in turn, caused anyone looking at her to instantly step back…even her own friends.

"Watch it, Haruno…." Kiba growled, as his puppy began growling. "Just because you have Sas-Gay guarding your ass, that doesn't mean he's able to take all of us." The threat was met with Sasuke shrugging, and walked off.

Then, finally, the examination door opened.

**TO BE CONTINUED………………**

Hahaha! Hey there everybody! Me again, performing another Cliffhanger no Jutsu! I hope you all enjoyed reading the first chapter, because I'll be writing for this story for a while, for now on…. Or until I get more ideas for my other stories. So…whatcha think? Like I said before, Naruto is acting like Hinata, and Hinata is acting like Naruto in this story. And again, the emotional change will stay, and won't change until much, much later into the story. And I'm debating on who to put on Naruto's and Hinata's team. Whatcha think? Leave reviews and opinion.


	2. Secret Revealed

Rating: M

Pairing: NaruHina and more as the story continues.

Author's Notes: Hey there everybody! I hope you all are enjoying this story as much as I am! I decided that, until I get out of my writer's block with my other stories, I'd start updating this story more often. And just so I can make this as painfully clear…Naruto's painful nervousness and attachment issues won't change over night. He'll stay nervous and shy for a while. Things probably won't change until he and Hinata start seeing each other in a different light. So, until then, enjoy chapter two. Sasuke bashing to the max…Literally! PEACE!!!!

Chapter 2: Secret Revealed

Finally, the door to the examination room opens.

Hinata watched anxiously, wondering if her shy friend had passed. But she was very disappointed to see Naruto walking out of the room, WITHOUT a forehead protector to show for it. He had failed every exam the was required for a ninja to perform in order to become a Gennin. It consisted of a written test, weapons test, Taijutsu , Genjutsu and a regular Henge Jutsu. But if one couldn't perform those requirements, that person was to repeat the class again for another full year.

And sadly, Naruto Uzumaki was one of those people.

He was the only student at the academy who didn't pass the exam that year. All the others managed to get high scores, and passed the tests with ease. But sadly, Naruto was to stay behind, while his former classmates went off and became full fledged ninjas. And it left Naruto with a look of defeat on his face.

"Naruto-kun…." Hinata said in a comforting voice. "I'm so sorry you didn't pass." It pained her to see her friend fail. And it hurt more knowing that Naruto was one of the ones who paid the most attention during class. He took notes, did well on tests, and did his best to do every assignment as well as possible. But when it came down to exercises, he couldn't do anything right. He always second guessed himself, and frequently messed up in one way or another.

This made his failure even harder to swallow.

"I'm not surprised that that failure couldn't pull it off…" The friends turned, and saw Sasuke Uchiha, leaning against the wall, with a sadistic grin on his face. "What kind of ninja can't perform the simplest of exercises? And more importantly, what kind of ninja can't stand up for himself? Anyone who can't even look at you in the eye isn't anything but…."

"Sasuke! That's enough!" Iruka growled as he, and the other instructor Mizuki walked out the exam room. The raven haired boy smirked, and walked off to join his little group. The scar faced man looked at the blond boy with a sympathetic look on his face. "I'm sorry, Naruto…maybe you'll do better next year."

"Isn't there anyway for him to pass, Iruka sensei?" Kiba asked. "I mean…Naruto has been one of your best students. He always does his work…and yeah, he needs help. But come on…another YEAR of the academy again? That's brutal." Mizuki sighed.

"I'm sorry, Kiba…I know how terrible that sounds. But the rules are clear. If Naruto couldn't pass this year's exam, he'll have to stay here until he can. I know that it sounds unfair…but that's the way it goes…." This being said again made Naruto's body tremble. His friends continued to suggest other ideas so that Naruto could graduate with them, but to no avail.

"E…excuse me….." Naruto shuttered. He brushed pass Hinata and the others, and exited the room without saying where he would be.

**OUTSIDE**

Naruto sat on the swing hanging from the tree, watching all the now new Gennins celebrate with their friends and family. Their mothers and fathers would praise them, and say how proud they were to be their parents. The children, in turn, would stick out their chest with pride, and flash their forehead protectors as proof.

But Naruto sat alone, with the look of defeat plastered on his face.

Seeing all those happy kids brought back painful memories. When growing up, he would watch as many other orphans would be adopted, and no one would even look at him. On one occasion, he was placed in a room with three other orphans. And when some people came to adopt, they picked every other child in Naruto's room, except Naruto.

Even to this day, he never knew why he was hated so much. He never harmed anyone in any way or form to his knowledge. He wasn't loud, disruptive, or annoying…and he tried to be as nice to anyone he meets for the first time. But every time, his kindness would result in getting beaten up by kids he met only once.

Amongst the crowd of happy Gennins and parents, two women glared over at the poor Jinchuuriki. "Look…there it is." One spat. "I hear it didn't pass this year, and that it'll have to take the class a whole year again…. Thank goodness." She finished, as she spat on the ground. Her friend turned to look.

"That's the Jin…."

"Quiet!" The first women whispered drastically. "We're not supposed to talk about it aloud." That was law. Sarutobi, soon after making it a crime to physically harm the boy, also passed another rule pertained to his secret.

The law: Never speak of it out loud in the presence of a crowd.

The old man figured this law would help Naruto in the long run. If no one could talk about the Kyuubi no Kitsune being sealed inside Naruto, the chances of the news spreading would not be a fear. So anyone who doesn't already know would leave him alone, hopefully making Naruto's life easier to live.

And it had helped considerably.

People who weren't told of Naruto being a Jinchuuriki would simply walk past him, paying little or no mind to him. But still, people didn't have to tell anyone about his secret…it was visible.

The three distinctive whisker birthmarks on his cheek was proof enough that he had something to do with the Kyuubi. Many clan families had distinctive marks. The Hyuuga clan had their white eyes, the Inuzuka had their two red marks going down their face, and so on. But there wasn't any clan in Konohagakure had three whisker like birthmarks on either side of their faces.

And sadly enough, that alone caused some people to treat him as if he was a pariah.

Naruto sat on the swing, and stayed by himself. That is, until Hinata made her way out of the large crowd. She walked slowly towards Naruto, with a sympathetic look…much to Naruto's discomfort. When she reached him, she leaned against the tree and looked at him…as if she was studying him. People watched, and frowned when they saw the future of the Hyuuga clan making any contact with the outcast.

"You OK?" She began. Nothing. "Naruto-kun…I can't begin to think how bad you have it…. But please don't beat yourself up. You…you just slipped up, that's all. I'm sure if you ask to take the exam agai…."

"N…no…" Naruto's small voice interrupted Hinata's attempt to cheer him up. "I j…just don't h…have what it t…takes to be a n…ninja." Hearing her friend sounding so negative caused Hinata to go stiff and wide eyed. "Wh…what good is s…someone if h…he can't h…help his teammates? H…how can you c…count on someone, if th…that person can't do anything r…right?" What Naruto just said sounded a little too much like Sasuke's earlier comment.

"No!" She grabbed Naruto by the shoulders. "Do not start talking like Sasuke-teme! He's…"

"Right!" Naruto shouted, which was the first time for Hinata. Then, he broke free of Hinata's grip, and ran the other way, with tears streaming down his face. Hinata shouted for him to come back, which were ignored completely. The group of people watched as all of this went down.

"HA! Look! Orphan Uzumaki is crying!" One certain Uchiha shouted, as he pointed in Naruto's fleeing direction.

Big mistake.

In rage, Hinata turned, and charged towards the smart mouthing Uchiha and his laughing friends. And in seeing the furious kunoichi running their way, all the other ninjas hid behind Sasuke. Sasuke dropped into a fighting position, and was ready to fight, but Sarutobi, of all people, leapt into action. He was amongst the parents and children, and just so happened to catch the whole scene.

"Hinata, stand down!" The Hokage said in a low voice, as he stood, with his cane in front of him. The cocky shinobi, obviously protected, smiled smugly at Hinata.

"Come on old man!" The kunoichi cried in angry frustration. "This prick has it coming! Let me kick his ORPHAN ass!" True, ever since his brother massacred his entire clan, Sasuke Uchiha WAS, in all ways, a orphan. He still lived in the Uchiha compound, and received no visits from concerned citizens.

"You shut your filthy mouth, you whore!" Sasuke's once cool and confident demeanor changed immediately when he was called a orphan.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Sarutobi shouted, horrifying everybody in hearing distance. The third Hokage NEVER shouted. He never so much as raised his voice in public…. But now, in front of this year's graduating students and their families, he shouted.

"Sasuke…." He continued in a softer tone. "You should rejoin your friends…. Let me and _Lady Hyuuga_ speak alone." The fact that the Hokage referred to Hinata in such a high status.

Which angered Sasuke even further.

After the two exchanged glares, the raven haired boy turned and stumped off. "And don't let me ever hear you referring to Lady Hyuuga like that again."

"Or I'll kick your…." Hinata was about to add on to what Sarutobi said, but the quieting glanced sent by the elderly man silenced her. Sarutobi had heard of the girl hanging out with Naruto one day when he was passing some children, while on one of his famous weekly walks through the village. And was curious to find out why.

"What you did just now isn't something you should be practicing." He began in a tired voice. Hinata was just about to counter with a response pertaining to who started it, but the old man continued. "I do, however, admire your loyalty to your _friend_." He emphasized friend, as he led the Hyuuga girl away from the crowd of people. "Not many people would stand up to a Uchiha like you just did…much less the survivor Sasuke Uchiha. Why?"

**MEANWHILE…….**

Naruto was sitting in the park…alone…crying silently into his hands. Shockingly, there wasn't a single other person in sight inside the park. There were people passing the park, but they merely sent their hateful looks his way and continued on their way.

'What's wrong with me…..?' Naruto repeated in his mind. 'Why am I such a screw up? Why can't I perform a simple Transformation Jutsu?' He thought he was alone…when Mizuki sensei appeared behind him. However, Naruto was too busy feeling terrible about himself to notice that he was there.

"It's unfair, isn't it, Naruto?" Naruto leapt forward when he heard the familiar voice. He turned, and saw that the man before him had a comforting smile on his face. "You think it's unfair, that you'll have to stay behind, while your friends and classmates went off to make something out of themselves. You think it's unfair that you seem to have difficulties performing the most simplest of tasks required of a ninja. And you wish that you could just die…right?"

Naruto was unsure as to answer the sudden questions. Where as it was true that that was in fact how he felt, he wondered how his…still sensei knew. "Umm…. Y…yeah. Th…that is how I f…feel, Mizuki sensei….. But h…."

"I know…because I was you." The white haired Chuunin sighed, leaning against a tree. He waited a few seconds for that thought to sink into Naruto when he asked him a question that was irresistible in Naruto's case. "Would you like to know how to earn enough extra credit so you can pass?"

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

Naruto sat deep inside the forest, with a stolen secret scroll in his arms. Mizuki said that he would help him sneak into the Hokage tower at night, and…_barrow_…a high class secret scroll filled with original techniques and Jutsus created within Konohagakure. Mizuki stated that if Naruto managed to learn a high class Jutsu from that scroll, then that would count as extra credit and allow him to graduate with his friends. Mizuki also claimed that if he wasn't able to master a move that night, it wouldn't matter. He said that the fact that HE, not including himself, snuck into the tower and stole the scroll, would show how stealthy Naruto was…and impress everyone.

'Hmm…. Where should I start?' He thought to himself, as he scanned through the stolen scroll. Everything and anything was good enough, stated Mizuki, so Naruto picked at random.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu

**MEANWHILE…..**

Hinata, for no particular reason, was walking through the forest that same night. She had some trouble sleeping, thinking about how Naruto wouldn't be graduating with her tomorrow. The look on his face was unforgettable. The shear look of defeat, misery, and the thing that struck her the hardest…the lifelessness look in Naruto's eyes. She couldn't get that image out of her head.

She didn't know why, but that look stayed with her all that night. She has known Naruto for so long, and thought she knew everything about him. But earlier that day, her cried right in front of her…. Which was a first. She knew he needed help with a lot of things, but it never occurred it her how much help he needed.

The other thing she had a hard time forgetting about is her little talk she had with Sarutobi earlier that afternoon.

**FLASHBACK**

"Why do you show particular interest in Naruto?" He asked. And at first, Hinata couldn't answer. She, herself, didn't exactly know why she cared so much about the village's pariah. So when the kunoichi didn't immediately answer…Sarutobi repeated the question. "Well?"

She scratched the back of her head, and shrugged.

"Well…I don't really know, old man. It's not like I like him or anything…" The Hokage chuckled. The fact that the girl was so eager to dismiss a romantic attachment to the boy was quite humorous, especially coming from the village's White Eyed Prankster herself.

"It's just that I can't stand everybody picking on him, for no apparent reason. He's a good person, yet he's treated like he's done something wrong." Sarutobi nodded, with a regretful expression showing on his face. "I mean, he grew up with nothing. No family, no home to call "home" or any friends. That in itself is horrible. But why does everybody have to hate him? What did he do to deserve this terrible treatment?"

These questions somehow caused a light smile to form on the elderly man's lips. The whole time they were talking, they were walking to no particular destination. But when they finally had a silent moment, they found themselves right in front of Hinata's favorite places to have ramen, Ichiraku Ramen. The owner of the famous stand was Teuchi Ichiraku and his daughter Ayame.

They greeted Hinata with a friendly hello, and bowed when they noticed that the third Hokage was also in their presence. Hinata took a seat, and ordered the usual: One bowl of chicken ramen. Sarutobi took a seat next to her, but didn't want anything.

He took off his hat, placed it on the counter, and let out a long sigh. Then he looked at Hinata with a tired old smile. "You know? There should be more people like you in this villages." The Hyuuga didn't know what he meant by that, and raised a eyebrow. "You see Naruto for who he is, and don't blindly mimic what everyone else does…. For reasons I can't say, I can't tell you why Naruto is treated so badly." Hinata's eyes popped open when she heard that. There WAS something wrong with the blond boy, and Sarutobi knew about it.

"Wait…you know what's wr…."

"Yes." The third answered sharply. "But I made it a serious law not to talk about it. It's a S-ranked secret, and will stay that way…until Naruto himself discovers it. If he finds out what's wrong, and wishes to tell others, then he'll do as he wishes with it. But until that time, and not before, the secret will stay secret. The villagers know the secret, but are not allowed to talk of it, causing Naruto to suffer more then he has to."

Then the man reached out and grabbed his hat. He got out of his seat and began to make his exit. Without saying another word, and leaving Hinata behind, confused…and hungry.

**END FLASHBACK**

'Why couldn't the old man tell me what was wrong with Naruto-kun?' Hinata thought to herself, not paying any to where she was walking. 'And why is it against the law to speak about it? What could Naruto-kun have done to make it a crime to talk about?' Her questions were soon cut short when her accidentally bumped into someone. But she didn't expect to meet anyone in the forest, and instinctively activated her Byakugan. To her surprise, in front of her was a dirt and sweat covered Naruto Uzumaki, panting heavily.

"Naruto-kun? What are you doing here?" Naruto scratched the back of his head, with a embarrassed look on his face.

"Umm…. M…Mizuki sensei said th…that there was a w…way for me to earn s…some extra credit, so I could g…graduate with you and th…the others." He answered in his usual stutter. "He said th…that if I could st…steal this scroll…I could learn a h…hogh level Jutsu and p…pass the exams. And he s…sad that if I c…can't learn anything, the f…fact that I m…managed to steal this scroll w…would guarantee me b…becoming a ninja. I…isn't that great?"

"NARUTO UZUMAKI!" Iruka's voice rang through the forest. He didn't sound concerned, however, he sounded furious when he shouted his student's name. He then leapt from a tree, and landed directly behind Naruto, with a mad expression on his face. "What have you done, Naruto?" He asked, disappointment sticking to every word.

The sound in his sensei's voice worried Naruto. He felt like he did something wrong, but didn't know why. "S…sensei? Wh…what do y…you mean? this is s…supposed to be e…extra credit…isn't it?" The scar faced man shot Naruto a confused look, and looked at Hinata.

"What is he talking about, Hinata? Breaking into the Hokage tower is a serious crime in itself. Stealing the sacred scroll only makes it worse! He might have to got to jail for this. What possessed you to think that stealing that scroll was extra credit?"

"Wh…what?" Naruto asked, in pure disbelief. Mizuki assured him that what they were doing was allowed. He promised that this would make it so he could graduate with his friends. But now…his other sensei is saying he's in serious trouble for doing what another sensei told him to do.

"What are you talking about, sensei?" Hinata continued off of Naruto's sentence. "Why is Naruto-kun getting in trouble? He was just doing what Mizuki sensei told him to do. Mizuki sensei said if he managed to steal the scroll, and learn a new Jutsu, then he'd graduate this year."

"Mizuki said that…?" Then, before Iruka could continue to ask questions, the sound of breaking tree branches caught his attention. But Hinata was the one who knew what it was. Her Byakugan was still activated, and she was able to see what was heading their way.

"GET DOWN!!!" She cried. The three dived to the ground, just as a giant Shuriken came only within a few inches of going right through their bodies. It imbedded itself in a tree that was right behind them. They quickly scattered, and looked where it came from. Up on a big tree branch, with a evil smirk on his face, was Mizuki.

"MIZUKI!" Iruka roared as he bolted to his feet. "What is the meaning of this?! What possessed you to order a student to go against the law?! And what caused you to lie to…." His rant was interrupted when Mizuki sent down a barrage of Kunai and Shuriken down at the man. He managed to dodge most of them, but a few found their targets and imbedded him against a tree by his arms and legs. He groaned it pain, and when he was about to order for the kids to run, Mizuki cut in.

"Sorry, Iruka…I've been planning to get rid of that demon brat for a while now, and no one is stopping me now." There it was again…. That nickname that he had been hearing his entire life.

"M…M…Mizuki sensei! Wh…what is g…going on? Wh…why are y…you doing this?" The white haired man turned and glared at the Jinchuuriki.

"Oh, I guess I can tell you, since you are going to die anyway. You see…."

"Take this!!" Suddenly, Hinata appeared behind him, with her Byakugan activated, ready to fight her former sensei. Iruka called out to her, yelling for her not to attack. But it was ignored, and she continued her advance. She sent a palm strike right into Mizuki's chest, this time, WITH chakra flowing through her attack. Normally, this kind of Gentle Fist attack would instantly render the victim unconscious, or incapacitated.

Not this time, however.

When her chakra charged palm smacked against Mizuki's chest, he immediately erupted into a large puff of smoke. The thick smoke temporally blinded the girl, which was when the Chuunin struck. He reappeared behind her, and struck on of her pressure points in her neck. Hinata's body went limp, and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"That was too easy…" The Chuunin snickered, as he turned to Naruto. "You must be wondering, "What is wrong with me? Why does everybody hate and despise me?" Well, here it is…"

"STOP IT!" Iruka growled, forcibly ripping a Shuriken out of his arm. But Mizuki didn't stop.

"You, Naruto Uzumaki, carry inside of you the Kyuubi no Kitsune." Dead silence. Naruto's body was shaking like a leaf in the wind. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His eyes were stretched to their limit, as he tried to comprehend what was just said to him.

"Th…the K…Kyuubi….."

"Yes, you little freak! You are the reincarnation of the same monster who attacked our village 12 years ago!" Mizuki shouted at the top of his lungs. "You are the reason all those people died, all those innocent families and civilians died! The damn Hokage made it a law not to harm you, which pissed off practically everybody seeking revenge!"

"Stop it Mizuki!" Iruka was now struggling to stay on his feet. He just got done pulling out five Shuriken and Kunai from his legs and arms, and were feeling tremendous pain. He turned to Naruto.

"Naruto! Run! I'll fight Mizuki and save Hinata! You just…." His sentence was interrupted when the white haired ninja threw another giant Shuriken, which headed straight towards the scare faced Chuunin.

Iruka dodged it, and returned by hurling a handful of Shuriken back at him. "Go Naruto! NOW!" Naruto didn't hesitate, and was off before Mizuki had enough time to chase after him.

**WITH NARUTO**

Naruto ran and stumbled through the forest, with tears pouring down his face. What he just learned shattered his entire world. He held the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the deadliest of all the tailed demons. He had also discovered why he was shunned his entire life…. Why no parent wanted their children becoming friends with him…why he was different. He didn't even care where he was running, just as long as it was somewhere away from there.

"Naruto!!" Iruka was running after him. "Mizuki is after you! You need to follow me, so we can get help!" Naruto might've gone with him, but two things held him back. One: He didn't know who to trust now. He just discovered that he was carrying the world's most dangerous and destructive monster in history. He couldn't be sure if Iruka would or wouldn't harm him, just like Mizuki.

But the wasn't the main reason.

The main reason was that this Iruka didn't have Hinata. The Iruka had said he'd protect Hinata. But now, here he was, not carrying Hinata on his back or anything. Naruto then stopped dead in his tracks, so that "Iruka" could get closer. And when that happened…..

POW!!!!!

Naruto delivered a kick to the imposter's stomach, sending him stumbling backwards. He stumbled backwards and up against a tree, where he tried to catch his breath.

"Y…you are n…not Iruka s…sensei…" Naruto stammered, as he dropped into a sloppy fighting position. And then, there was nothing spoken immediately afterwards. There was a ominous silence, before the man began to chuckle wickedly. Then, in a puff of smoke, the man once appeared as Iruka, turned into Mizuki…who had another menacing smile showing.

"Looks like you're smarter then you look…. But that won't save you." Naruto was still shaking, as Mizuki started marching his way. "I'm going to kill you…then I'll kill you white eyed friend and that sad excuse of a Chuunin Iruka. And since you were involved, I'll simply say that you killed them, and I managed to kill you. No one will ask other wise, and I'll become a hero…. Now, hold still!!!"

The man then charged directly at the Jinchuuriki with a Kunai in hand, ready to deliver a quick death. But as he got closer, he noticed that the blond was performing hand sighs, and had a little of a reddish glow radiating off him. His eyes were rolled into the back of his head, and seemed as if his body was being held up like a puppet on it's strings.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!!!!!!"

**TO BE CONTINUED…………………**

HAHAHA! Yet another Cliffhanger Jutsu! I love it! How are you all doing? I know what you all are thinking, so let me go over everything.

1. Naruto isn't going through the first Kyuubi change…. It's a little in between. Naruto is temporally possessed by a mixture of his true emotions and the Kyuubi's control. Neither has complete control, but neither the less, have on goal: Take Down Mizuki.

2. Naruto will not remember losing control. He will be discovered by ANBU ninjas, who had been sent by the third.

3. Hinata and Iruka aren't dead. They're just unconscious. Iruka will regain consciousness, grab Hinata, and meet up with the unconscious Naruto before being found by the ANBU.

4. There will be major Sasuke and Sakura bashing. If anyone doesn't like that, then I'm sorry. But if you do hate Sasuke or Sakura bashing, please don't complain about it and make a review out of it. It's just a big waste of a review that should be describing what you liked and disliked…not just one full of things that you hated about it.

5. Naruto will wake up and continue to be a scared and shy person. There will be no over night changes to Naruto in this story. That's one of the requirements.

6. Team 8: Kurenai's team will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga and Chouji Akimichi

I hope I answered all the questions you all might have. Please leave a review after reading this. PEACE!


	3. Team 8

Pairing: NaruHina, and more as the story continues.

Rating: M

Author's Notes: Hey there everybody! Nice to see you all again! It's awesome to have 63 reviews for my story, and am only on my SECOND chapter! I have a strong feeling this will be another winner. Anyway, I accidentally gave up some stuff in my end author's notes…sorry. It's just where I ended, and I didn't want a bunch of questions asked in my reviews. Hope you all can forgive me. Enjoy chapter 3, and please…LET'S BREAK 100 REVIEWS! YEAH!

Chapter 3: Team 8

His hands were moving so fast, the red glow radiating of his hands became a red blur to Mizuki. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!!!!!!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs. Smoke erupted from his body, But the white haired man was not intimidated…he was curious.

'What are you up to, Kyuubi no Kitsune?' He asked himself, as he withdrew his Ninjato he had strapped to his back. Smoke continued to fill the forest, and become thicker with each passing second. But still not feeling scared or intimidated, the treacherous Chuunin dashed into the cloud of smoke, ready to take the life of the Jinchuuriki.

But in doing so, Mizuki broke a crucial rule ever shinobi should follow: Never underestimate any opponent.

And he relearned this the HARD way.

When he charged into the cloud of thick smoke, there wasn't anything for him to slash. The sound of shuffling feet surrounded him, signaling that there was more then just him and Naruto there. He swung around, and saw nothing. The smoke blanketed the entire area he was, and couldn't see anything more then two feet in front of him.

"Show yourself, Kyuubi!" Mizuki roared. There was no verbal response to his demand. But he didn't need one by this point. At that time, the smoke was finally beginning to clear. With one hand holding a Ninjato, and another hand holding Shuriken, Mizuki waited for the smoke to clear entirely.

But what he saw next…truly terrified him.

When the smoke cleared, Mizuki found that all around him, Bunshin clones of Naruto littered the forest floor and trees. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was considered a Jonin level Jutsu, but here, the "Dead last" managed to practically fill the forest with them. And the boy didn't even look tired from the amount of chakra it required to do it.

Overcome by fear, Mizuki began to back away, his body trembling. But he was trapped. Behind him, stood several clones, with a hateful gaze radiating off their faces. They closed in on him from all sides, causing to go onto the defensive.

"St…stay back!" He cried, throwing a couple of Shuriken at some clones. They were struck, and disappeared. But immediately afterwards, more took their place. So he tried again. "I…I said stay back, you filthy demons!" But his demands were not met. Instead, from all directions, all the clones, including the original Naruto, dog piled onto the Chuunin.

The sounds of punches, kicks, and Mizuki's cries of pain filled the forest.

**TEN MINUTES LATER**

Mizuki lied on there, in the middle of the forest, severely beaten by Naruto and his clones. He had two black eyes, broken arms and legs, broken nose, two busted lips, and was unconscious. But he wasn't the only one unconscious. Naruto himself used far more chakra then he was used to. So he collapsed on the ground due to chakra depletion. And when he passed out, all his clones exploded in big puffs of smoke.

Then, from out of the forest, stumbles the beaten and bruised Iruka sensei, carrying the unconscious Hinata Hyuuga on his back. The man was in pain, but that was the last thing on his mind at the time. Naruto just discovered the terrible secret about himself. He discovered that he holds the Kyuubi no Kitsune inside of him, and learned why he was hated and despised by practically the entire adult and children population. He bit his bottom lip, thinking about what Naruto was going through right now.

Suddenly, his concern turned to fear when he realized something. Mizuki was after him, and was out to kill Naruto. Iruka didn't even know if his student was even alive…and it was all his fault.

Ignoring the pain, the scarred faced man went from limping on a suspected sprained ankle, to a full out sprint towards where he last saw Naruto and Mizuki running off in.

'Please be alright, Naruto….' Iruka prayed in his head. 'Please still be alive.' He continued to fight off the pain, as he ran through the bushes. The extra weight Hinata's body was putting on Iruka wasn't helping him, though. And it did slow him down, but not by that much. He continued to race through the forest, when he finally came across the area where Naruto's and Mizuki's unconscious bodies laid. He ignored Mizuki's mangled condition and rushed to Naruto's side.

"Naruto! Naruto, are you alright!" He asked. Iruka gently rested Hinata against a tree, and began to treat Naruto for anything that was wrong with him. But he quickly discovered that Naruto wasn't harmed nor hurt…he was merely unconscious due to lack of chakra.

'Thanks God…' He thought, as he let out a sigh of relief. Then he turned and saw what had happened to the bastard Mizuki. And was pleasantly surprised that Naruto, the shyest boy he knew managed to do that to a Chuunin level shinobi. What Mizuki did tonight broke so many roles and laws, the odds of him NOT receiving a death sentence was slim at best.

The Naruto's body began to stir, and low moans escaped his mouth as he slowly regained consciousness. His eyes twitched while still shut, but soon, they fluttered open. And the first thing he saw, was the smiling face of his sensei. "Well…looks like you are alive, after all, huh?" But the man's humor was answered with Naruto quickly leaping backwards. The scared boy then stationed himself behind a tree.

"Wh…why are you even t…talking to m…me sensei?'' Naruto asked, his body trembling in fear…and sorrow. "I…I'm a monster. I…I killed s…so many people…but y…yet, you still t…treat me like e…everybody else…why?" Iruka sighed heavily, and looked down at his student. Naruto looked up, and noticed…that Iruka was crying. Tears silently slid down his face, as he limped closer towards the tree Naruto was hiding behind.

"Because…you and I are the same." He spoke in a light voice. "You and I…are like that same person. Sad, scared…alone." Naruto was listening intently, as he heard about his sensei compares their lives. "Both of my parents were killed while fighting the Kyuubi, and I was orphaned." Naruto felt even worse now. One of the only adults who cared for him, and he found out that he killed his parents.

"I grew up alone…no one caring rather or not I was OK or not. So I started doing stupid stuff, just to get attention…. But no matter what I did, no one seemed to care." He paused to take a breath. Luckily, Hinata was still unconscious, allowing him to talk about this next issue.

"When the Kyuubi no Kitsune was sealed inside you, the Hokage made it a rule not to talk about you and the Kyuubi being sealed together. He also made it a law against hurting you or harassing you. He thought all of this would help you…but not even the Hokage could stop them…" He was about to continue, when Naruto looked like he had something to say.

"S…sensei…" Now tears were falling from Naruto's eyes. "Wh…why don't you h…hate me l…like all the o…other instructors or a…adults?" His voice was small and quivering. His hands dug into the bark of the tree he was hiding behind. "I…I killed your p…parents, and m…many other in…innocent people…. Wh…" He was then interrupted by Iruka, who managed to get around the tree with impressive speed…for a guy with a sprained ankle.

"No, Naruto…" He corrected, as he placed a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "You are NOT the Kyuubi no Kitsune, you are it's container. You are a hero for being here…and should be praised for what you hold inside you." Tears seemed to began falling from both Naruto's and Iruka's eyes more then ever. "You deserved better then this, and shouldn't have gone through all of this. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you…I wish I could've been there for you, when you needed someone."

And before any more words were spoken, Iruka got to one knee, and gave Naruto a comforting hug. Naruto, overwhelmed with emotions, decided to hug back. The hug lasted for 30 seconds before Iruka parted. Then, he reached up, untied his forehead protector, and handed it to Naruto.

"Congratulations, Naruto Uzumaki…you are officially a Gennin." Hearing this left Naruto in a dazed state. He wasn't sure what he was hearing was true…or if he was dreaming or imagining things.

He rubbed his eyes, and looked at his sensei again.

"Umm…. Wh…what?" Iruka repeated himself, and dropped his headband into the blonde's hands. "Y…you mean…I'm a n…ninja?" The scare faced man chuckled, and nodded.

"Yes, Naruto. You graduated…. Congratulations." Then, all of a sudden, a large group of ANBU ninja hunters leapt from the trees, and landed right in front of Naruto and Iruka.

"Iruka…what the hell happened?" The leader asked, as he walked up to confront the Chuunin. "It was said that Naruto Uzumaki broke into the Hokage tower and made off with one of it's scrolls…" Then his attention as diverted from the man before him, to the scared NINJA hiding behind the tree.

But then Iruka stepped in between the two, with a stern look on his face. "Yes…but he's not the one at fault here. It was Mizuki who told him to do it. He promised that if Naruto did, he'd graduate from the academy. Mizuki is the one at fault…. The only thing Naruto did was listen to one of his instructors." The leader of the ANBU group looked at Mizuki, and sighed.

"OK…. Kinchi! Gammani! Take this worthless pile of trash to Ibiki and Anko!" The two ANBU ninjas, Kinchi and Gammani, both grabbed one arm of the unconscious traitor, and disappeared in a puff of smoke. When the leader saw Hinata's unconscious body resting against a tree, he turned to Iruka.

"She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She tried to fight Mizuki when he tried to kill me and Naruto, and was knocked unconscious…. I'll take her to Hiashi-sama." Iruka offered. The ANBU leader, named Hai, chuckled aloud and shook his head.

"No, Iruka. I'll deliver Lady Hyuuga to her father. You need some medical attention…. What about Uzumaki?" Naruto looked down, nervous about him coming up during this stressful situation. Iruka looked at Hai with a smirk.

"What about him?" He asked. "Naruto can walk himself home…. He is a _shinobi_, now." While Iruka's words sounded harsh, he was trying to emphasize that Naruto was a full fledged ninja now. The hidden message was not lost on Naruto, who shyly grinned. And once the scroll, Iruka and Hinata were gathered up, they all went off into the city.

**THE NEXT MORNING**

The next morning, all the graduated Gennins returned to the academy to be assigned teams. Naruto was the last to arrive, because he was nervous(of course) about finally becoming a ninja. Iruka was there at the academy, however. His left leg was in a brace, and had two crutches beside his desk. When his students asked him what happened, he would chuckle and say he hurt himself training.

Hinata was also there. She remembered what happened before Mizuki knocked her unconscious, and wanted to know what happened. Hai informed what had happened to Hinata to her father, Hiashi Hyuuga, head of the Hyuuga clan. And that morning, when she finally awoke, her father filled her in.

'I hope Naruto-kun is OK…' She thought to herself. She forgot to ask Iruka or her father if Naruto was alright or not…. And secretly, she hated herself for it. But, right before Iruka began to speak, Naruto made his way into the classroom, while wearing a headband around his neck.

"Hey! Naruto-kun!" Hinata called excitedly, as she waved her hands in the air. "You made it!" As Naruto made his way to Hinata, he noticed that Sasuke was in the corner of the room, sending him a death glare.

"Looks like the cry baby passed after all…. I guess you must've cried so much that the instructors felt sorry for you and…." His barrage of insults were interrupted when Hinata activated her Byakugan. It made her feel superior whenever she is able to shut Sasuke up, just by busting out her eyes.

Before things got too out of hand, Iruka cleared his throat. "OK, take a seat everyone!" His voice was loud enough to cause everybody to settle down, but not be considered yelling. There was a long check-off sheet in his hands, and he began reading them off in no particular order.

"Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha…Kiba Inuzuka…and Sakura Haruno. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." The raven haired Uchiha simple grunted, as Sakura was literally jumping in the air with excitement. Kiba only growled, and continued to pet his ninja dog, Akamaru.

"Team 10 will be Shikamaru Nara…Ino Yamanaka…and Shino Aburame. Your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." Ino was still sad that she wouldn't be on Hinata's team, and had her head on the desk. Shino nor Shikamaru said anything, which was not surprising. The Aburame simply nodded, while Shikamaru went back to watching clouds roll on by.

"Team 8 will be Hinata Hyuuga…" Said Hyuuga raised her head when she heard her name. "Chouji Akimichi…and Naruto Uzumaki. And your sensei will be Kurenai Yuuhi."

**EARLIER THAT MORNING**

Kurenai Yuuhi, along with Kakashi Hatake and Asuma Sarutobi all met in the Hokage's office. They were there to receive their Gennin team, only hours before having to be at the academy. It was 5:42am, and Kakashi had a large dark ring underneath his only visible eye.

'Serves you right for being late so much, Hatake…' She thought to herself, as Sarutobi lit his pipe, and began to open files.

"Good morning, you three…. Hope I didn't appoint this meeting too early for any of you." This was mainly driven towards Kakashi, for the old man was secretly picking on him for purposely being truant so many times before. The one eyed Jonin grumbled, but didn't say more.

"But seriously, I've called you all here to inform you about your Gennin teams." He opened up the first file. "Kakashi…your team will consist of Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki." Kakashi nodded, as he pulled out a certain orange perverted reading book. Ignoring that, the old man continued.

"Asuma, your team will be Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Shino Aburame." Asuma Sarutobi, also the old man's son, nodded respectably. Then he turned to Kurenai.

"Kurenai, your team will be Kiba Inuzuka, Chouji Akimichi, and Hinata Hyuuga." But unlike Kakashi and Asuma, Kurenai didn't particularly like her team. It wasn't that she wouldn't want any of them…it was Kakashi's team that she didn't like.

Kurenai Yuuhi knew that Sasuke Uchiha would be on Kakashi's team, since they both shared the Sharingan eye. She didn't care much about the Haruno girl…but hearing that Naruto would be on the same team with two of his worst abusers made her second guess.

So the red eyes kunoichi cleared her throat, getting Sarutobi's attention.

"Pardon me, Sarutobi-sama…. But I'm not sure if the team assessment is best the way they could be." The statement even caused Kakashi to pull his attention from his porno and placed it directly on her.

Curious as to what the Yuuhi had to say, Sarutobi let out a big puff of smoke. "Explain…."

So she did. "Well, I have a little problem in Naruto's placement on the same team as the Uchiha and Haruno." When neither Kakashi or Asuma said anything, she continued. "Sasuke and Sakura have been tormenting the poor boy the entire time he has been attending the academy. And I find it a little…cruel…to place him on a team where the other two hate and bullies him……….. And that the sensei wouldn't show him the attention he needs." Again, this statement was directed at Kakashi.

"He has been shunned and ignored his ENTIRE life, and deserves a sensei who would pay attention to him, and who wouldn't be interested on just one student." It was true. Kakashi has been going on about how he'd gladly have to drop outs, as long as he had the Uchiha survivor on his team. Since they both had the famous Sharingan eyes, he was able to teach him Jutsu(s) and techniques that the other members wouldn't.

That was one of the things she didn't like about Kakashi…

"I would prefer the poor Gaki NOT suffer more then he needs to." The woman continued. "The Inuzuka boy is passable in Taijutsu, and his family's ability to smell is also of value…but I wouldn't mind trading him, if Naruto could be on my team." She finished, looking at the old man.

Hearing all of this…_intrigued_…Sarutobi.

"Hmm…." He groaned, as he smoothed his gray beard. "You have a excellent point, Kurenai-san…. But are you sure you want to give up your Inuzuka member?" He asked. "His ability to smell from long distances would be quite useful." Sarutobi respected the Jonin for caring about the poor boy…but he needed to make sure. "Naruto might be a handful. His Ninjutsu and Taijutsu abilities are lacking, and might require a lot of work to correct."

Kurenai grinned. "I don't think trading Kiba for Naruto would effect my team that much. Having Hinata's Byakugan eyes with us…I doubt we would run into any trouble. Hinata's range if far wider then Kiba's, and more accurate. And personally…." She concluded with a devilish grin. "I think the Inuzuka boy might give the Uchiha and Haruno a good work out."

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, smiling to himself. It was nice to hear someone defending Naruto, and doing what THEY could to help him. "OK…" He answered, letting out a large puff of smoke.

Kurenai smiled, while Kakashi didn't really care. He simply continued to read his book, happy with whatever he got…as long as Sasuke Uchiha was on his team, he was content.

**PRESENT**

"Sensei?!" Sasuke asked. He was wondering why Naruto wasn't on his team. It was tradition that the best student in the class be on the same team with the worst of the students…. And he wanted to torment him some more. "I thought it was the best and worst students were put on the same team…"

"Yes…. Hinata is the best student in the class, so I placed Naruto with her and Chouji."

OUCH!

Hearing that the Hyuuga loud-mouth was considered better then him really struck at his pride. "WHAT?! How can she be better then me?!" Sasuke asked in outrage.

"While you two are close to being evenly match, Hinata scored better on the weapons test than you did. Her aim was exact, while you missed a couple…. So she was awarded the best student." Iruka said with a straight smile plastered on his face.

Instead of dragging this on any farther, the Uchiha sat back down, and scowled at Hinata. Hinata, in turn, put on a cocky smile and stuck out her tongue at Sasuke.

Then, a very attractive women entered the room. She had long black hair, which ended halfway down her back. Her eyes were a beautiful shade of crimson red. And she wore a elegant red and white dress, which stopped a little above her kneecaps.

All the boys in the class, including Naruto and Iruka, blushed when Kurenai entered the classroom. All the girls, in turn, smacked the drooling boys behind their heads. Sasuke was the only one who didn't care(Why he's called Sas-Gay!) and didn't sp much as give her a second glance.

"Kurenai-san…" Iruka began, trying to master his blush. "You're early. You weren't to pick up your team until later." The woman placed her hand on her hips, and strutted her way towards him. She then took a seat on his desk, in a seductive manner.

"Why Iruka-san…. I was just too anxious to meet my team, I just had to come early." She began in a innocent tone. She knew that the man could barely hold a straight face while talking to her. Ever since the "Bath-House Incident" Iruka would go red in the face whenever he even looks at her.

And she LOVED toying with his weakness…but not in a mean way. "Do you think I could pretty please take them now…and get to know them?"

Iruka looked away, with redness dominating his face. "Umm…. S…sure. Go ahead." His voice cracked in the middle of his sentence, causing him to go even redder in the face. Kurenai held back her laughter, and called out her students' names.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga and Chouji Akimichi!" The three students hesitantly got out of their chairs and walked down the steps. Then she led them out the door, as Iruka regained what little composure he had, and continued to read off the teams.

**OUTSIDE**

The second Kurenai and her team were out of the ninja academy building, the woman started laughing hysterically. She held in the laughs from Iruka sensei because she didn't want to embarrass the man TOO much. But the way their sensei acted left the team with mixed emotions.

To Hinata, their sensei looked like she had some Tomboy-ness in her, by the way she enjoyed making Iruka blush and stutter. Also, the fact she was a WOMAN, and managed to become a Jonin placed her in Hinata's good graces.

To Chouji, he felt nervous about having such a attractive sensei. Chouji was currently going through the stage of puberty where he had…ahem…difficulties, when looking at attractive girls. But now that he has Kurenai as his sensei, he silently dreaded being on Team 8.

Naruto…didn't know what to think about Kurenai. He was a little nervous about how he'd act about her attractiveness…just not as much as Chouji. He didn't mind she was a woman. What he WAS really nervous about was rather or not she was one of those people who hated him or not.

But his thoughts stopped when Kurenai finally got over her laughing fit. She wiped the tears from her eyes, and grinned.

"I'm sorry, kids…. I was just having a little fun with Iruka." Hinata was smiling brightly at how her sensei operates. She was using her attractiveness to toy with mans' primal needs.

'Hmm…. I wonder if she can teach me that?' The Hyuuga heir asked herself, secretly glancing at Naruto. Kurenai was leading the three towards the park. She led them into the middle of the park, and sat cross-legged in the grass. The Gennins mimicked her, and sat in a semi-circle around their sensei.

"Hello, you three…" Kurenai began, in a calm tone. "I want this first afternoon to be about us getting to know each other. I would like to hear you tell me stuff about yourself." When no one began, she smiled, and decided she would start it. "Like this: My name is Kurenai Yuuhi. My likes include reading, drinking Sake, spending time with my friend Anko, and singing karaoke. My dislikes are loud drunks and arrogant people who think women can't make decent ninjas. My goal is to make sure you all become well rounded, respectable ninjas." She finished.

'HELL YEAH!' Hinata thought excitedly. 'I love this sensei!'

When nobody wanted to go next, Hinata took charge. "My name is Hinata Hyuuga. My likes include hanging out with my friends…" She wrapped one arm around Chouji's and Naruto's neck to prove they were her friends. The Akimichi simply smiled, while Naruto went bright red in the face.

"I also like training, pressing flowers, and messing with Naruto-kun here." She then gave her blond friend a little nuggie. "My dislikes are stuck up assholes like Sasuke Uchiha and obsessive fan girls like Sakura Haruno. My goal is to become a great leader of my clan." She finished with a confident smile.

Kurenai couldn't help but smile at her kunoichi student. 'Well, she's a Tomboy, alright…but hey…so am I.' The woman thought, as she analyzed Hinata's persona. 'She seems quite attached to the Uzumaki boy. Funny, the loudest kunoichi Konohagakure produced, ending up liking the most shy and nervous boy ever produced.'

She stopped thinking about that matter, and pointed to Chouji. Knowing how nervous Naruto was known for being, she figured she'd have him speak last.

Chouji stopped staring at Kurenai, and cleared his throat. "My name is Chouji Akimichi. My likes are eating, visiting many different kinds of restaurants, and cooking. My dislikes are jerks who make fun of my "Chubbiness" and people who constantly urge me to eat more healthy food. I'm a freakin' NINJA! I should be able to eat whatever the hell I want!" The chubby boy went off on a little rant, before Kurenai brought him back. "And my goal is to become the Akimichi clan leader." He finished.

Kurenai smiled, as sat up against the old tree standing in the middle of the park. 'Looks like we have another hot-head in this group…. But he has good admissions…food, most. But he's also a close fried to Naruto, so it works.'

Then Kurenai looked at Naruto.

The Jinchuuriki was nervous at first, but eventually started. "M…my name is N…Naruto Uzumaki. M…my likes are hanging out w…with my f…friends, and training…. My dislikes a…are people who p…pick on other people f…for no reason. And my g…goal…." Naruto paused, and took a breath. "My goal is to b…become the best H…Hokage there has e…ever been."

Wow.

That was what was on everybody's mind when they heard that last part. For all the four years Naruto has been at the academy, he never mentioned that he wanted to become the Hokage before. Hinata was surprised, but smiled confidently at her blond friend, as did Chouji.

'Hmm…interesting.' Kurenai thought. 'May not have a big mouth, but has big dreams. But his lack in confidence and lack in skills might crash that dream…. Sarutobi was right…this WILL be challenging.'

Kurenai, nevertheless, smiled when Naruto finished. He sat back down, and Kurenai stood back up.

"That was really enlightening. Thank you. You all can go home for the rest of the day. Tomorrow at 8am, we will be in training field eight. There, we will start with basic exercises, drills, and sparring sessions." When the orders were delivered, the three bowed, and began to leave. But before Naruto turned to go home, Kurenai stopped him.

"Naruto?" The boy stopped and looked at his sensei curiously. "Would you mind walking and talking with me?"

**TO BE CONTINUED……**

How was that?! I hope you all liked the Mizuki beat down and the Naruto, Chouji, and Hinata team 8 plan. Kurenai will be acting a little OOC in this story. She'll be more adventurous, and will be a little "Naughty" when it comes to men. (Don't worry, there will NOT be any younger boy/Kurenai stuff in this story!) She will mostly be doing little things that emphasizes her…ahem…well shaped figure. I was also thinking about putting some Kurenai/Iruka in this. Whatcha think? Also, if anyone want's to know about the famous "Bath-House Incident" just ask. Please leave lots of reviews, and let's break 100 reviews in only three chapter! Until next time! PEACE!


	4. Training and Missions

Pairing: NaruHina and more as the story progresses.

Rating: M

Author's Notes: Hey there everybody! How are you all doing?! I hope you all liked the last chapter as much as I did! Mizuki getting his treacherous ass pwned, Sas-Gay getting told off by Iruka, and the new and improved Tomboyish Kurenai Yuuhi! The whole chapter was good, am I right? Anyway, I hope you all like this next chapter. And don't forget to visit my profile and check out my new poll. What should my next Naruto story be about? You decide!

Chapter 4: Training and Missions

"Naruto?" Naruto stopped and looked at his sensei curiously. "Would you mind walking and talking with me?"

The blond blush, and looked around. He then brought his hands up, and started fiddling with his two index fingers, which has been his nervous response for as long as he could remember. "Umm…is there s…something you w…wish to discuss w…with me, K…Kurenai sensei?" He asked, not looking directly at his sensei.

Kurenai sighed. 'Damned nervousness. That is something we'll have to work on…I guess….' "Yes and no.." The Jonin answered in a reassuring voice. "I was just wondering if you would join me for a little dinner…my treat." Naruto blushed some more, but didn't move.

"Umm…. Wh…why do y…you want to sh…share a meal w…with me, K…Kurenai sensei?" He asked again, this time, taking a small step backwards. Kurenai frowned at this.

"You're just full of question…aren't you, kid?" She joked, but didn't received any laughs from her shy student. He only bowed his head, and apologized. Getting irritated by his shyness, she took a deep breath.

"Listen, Naruto…." She kept her voice even, and tried not to show her annoyance in front of him. "You don't have to worry, I don't hate because of your…_prisoner_."

Naruto's eyes flew open at the mention of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and looked at his sensei with fear showing in his eyes. "It's not your fault he's inside you…so I hold no grudge against you for having it inside you…OK?" She placed her hands on her hips again, and raised her eyebrow.

'Damned villagers…' She growled in her mind. 'Look at what you did to this poor boy. He's too scared to even trust his own sensei…. Though I suppose I have that traitor Mizuki to thank for that.' The Jonin then turned her attentions back to her student.

Naruto was shaking a little, most likely nervous about trusting another adult. His eyes were down to one side, as if he was thinking. He was still fiddling with his fingers, when he finally took a deep breath.

"Umm… O…OK." The boy breathed. "Th…thank you, K…Kurenai sensei…" Happy with his answer, the older woman smiled brightly.

'Good…it's a start.' She thought. "Good. Now follow me. I know a great place with pretty decent food." Kurenai then began to walk off, followed closely behind by Naruto.

As they walked through town, Kurenai noticed that Naruto was receiving a large amount of glares and dirty looks from the villagers. Even the little children were mimicking the adults, which sickened Kurenai to her stomach. So she countered with some glares of her own. This was the reason Naruto was the way today. The reason he's scared and nervous all the time.

Naruto Uzumaki was HER student, and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to defend him.

And so the looks were repelled once their glares moved up, and were met with Kurenai's angry gaze. Her red eyes also helped in her favor, giving her a more intimidating look to her. It was like that, until they finally arrived at their destination.

It was a small family owned café, which had been around for over ten years. It was a café popular to civilians and shinobi alike. It was locate a mere few blocks away from the ninja academy, and Naruto wondered why he never noticed it before.

As they neared, a well dressed door greeter awaited them. "Welcome." He started, with a pleasant tone and smile. "It's nice to meet you. How many will we be…." He stopped when he noticed Naruto. Said boy immediately hid behind Kurenai, afraid of what would happen.

"TWO…sir." Kurenai informed sternly. "I would like a table for me and my STUDENT. Will that be any trouble for you?" Kurenai knew that if she didn't say anything, the asshole would either give her a bogus excuse, or tell her face to face he wouldn't seat the boy, but would gladly seat her. So Kurenai placed her hands on her hips as she waited for the man before her to come up with a answer.

Finally, the man gave. "Please follow me…I'll seat you at out best table." With a couple of menus under his arm, he led Naruto and Kurenai to the front of the café, right in front of the large window. There were a lovely glass vase, with a couple roses inside it…meant for a date, most likely.

"….Thank you, sir…" Kurenai sighed, not really meaning it. She knew all too well the waiter would've acted if it was just Naruto asking for a seat. 'You're not getting a tip either, jerk.' She thought, as she looked at Naruto again.

Her shy student seemed to sink into his seat, as if trying to hid himself with what little cover he had. And the Jonin soon saw why. Over half the customers who were sitting around them were giving them mix expressing. While one half shot Naruto the normal glare or scowl, the other half shot Kurenai a questionable look, wondering if she KNEW who the boy was.

Rapidly growing tired of the poor Gaki's abuse, she slammed her fist on the table, causing the glasses of water on shake. "My I please ask why you all are staring at me and my student? We're trying to enjoy a peaceful dinner, but you all seem to be very interested in something about us…. So, what is it?" No one answered. They merely ended their meals early, paid their bills and left.

Now the café was nearly empty.

"Umm…sensei?" Kurenai heard Naruto's small voice, and listened. "Wh…why do you in…insist on t…treating me to d…dinner? I…I'm only going to c…cause you t…trouble." He looked as if HE was the reason for causing the other people to leave.

Secretly, Kurenai's heart began to break for the poor boy. He seemed to be blaming himself for everything and anything that goes wrong. Kurenai frowned sadly at her student, and shook her head.

"No, Naruto…you are being nice and respective." She sighed, as she rubbed her temples. "It's everyone else who I have a problem with."

Naruto noticed that the waiter wasn't there to take their orders yet, so he lowered his voice to a low whisper. "Iruka sensei t…told me you w…weren't allowed to speak about it…"

"We're not…" Kurenai answered, with a faint grin on her face. "Sarutobi's law forbids us who already know to talk to anyone who might not already know about the Kyuubi no Kitsune…" Her voice went extra soft when mentioning the fox's name. There was no one around, but she felt it was better to be safe then sorry.

"You know what?" She continued, getting Naruto to listen closer. "I personally PICKED for you to be on my team." The change of subject was sudden, and the subject itself cause Naruto to take on a red glow underneath his cheeks.

"Wh…what?" The blond boy asked, flattered to hear a Jonin personally wanting him on their team, when he had been rejected his entire life. Kurenai smiled warmly, and nodded.

"Yep…. You were going to be on Kakashi's team, with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno." Naruto's eyes widened at the thought. "That's what I thought, too. I figured that putting you on the same team as two of your worst harassers would be nothing short of cruel. So I spoke up, and managed to get you on my team, with Hinata and Chouji."

Naruto blushed, and started fiddling with his fingers again.

Kurenai couldn't help but laugh at the boy's embarrassment. The repeating blush and nervous gestures gave the boy a rather…cute look. 'No wonder the Hyuuga likes him…. He's pretty cute when he blushes…' The Jonin thought, as the waiter returned to take their orders.

Once they ordered their food, Kurenai looked at Naruto and continued. "No need to thank me, kid. I just know you deserve better. I don't think I could've slept tonight, knowing you would've been placed on that same team as the Uchiha or Haruno…." As she poured her little saucer of Sake, she sighed.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Naruto. The fact that it took this long for both me and Iruka to tell you that is a crime all in itself." She sounded sincere, and had a regretful expression on her face.

Naruto looked up, and looked gazes with his sensei. Something didn't feel right, somehow. He was happy that he was with someone who cared for him, much like Iruka did…. But he wasn't sure as to why yet.

But Kurenai must've temporarily gained the power to read minds, if but for a second, because after she took a long gulp of Sake, she continued.

"The reason I don't hold anything against you…is because the last time I check the history scrolls, the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konohagakure, not the Naruto no Uzumaki." The way she formed the statement caught Naruto off guard. "A demon attacked and destroyed the village…not a 12 year old boy."

She knew she might have been spreading it on a little too thick…but she wanted to make it crystal clear she had nothing against Naruto. And at hearing all of this, Naruto looked around, double-checking if anyone was listening, or that was in listening distance. When he turned back, Kurenai had removed her forehead protector, because since she was in a café, she found no need to have it on.

"Umm…sensei?" Naruto spoke a little louder, and had a small smile on his face. "Th…thank you, for ch…choosing me to b…be on your t…team." Kurenai smiled, and giggled when another blush crept onto Naruto's cheeks.

"Don't mention it, kid…" Then, she decided to start having fun with the shy Jinchuuriki. "So…what's between you and Lady Hyuuga?"

What happened next made Kurenai wish she'd brought a video camera.

The water Naruto WAS drinking ended up spraying out, and splashing the waiter who was carrying his and Kurenai's food. Luckily, the man had a good grip on the trays, and managed not to drop them. He was, however, now very wet.

He sent a scowl down at Naruto, who was trying to apologize. But he was stuttering do much, Kurenai doubted anyone could understand him. So Kurenai slipped the waiter a tip (Going against what she was NOT going to do) and the man forgave the boy…this time.

But when the man went into the kitchen to dry off, the older kunoichi erupted into another laughing fit. This only embarrassed Naruto more, who had his head on the table, too embarrassed to even look up at his tormentor.

"I'm sorry, Naruto…" Kurenai said, wiping her tears onto her dress sleeve. "That was mean of me…." But she repeated the question anyway. "So what is between you and our little Hyuuga heir?" She asked in a teasing tone. "The world's loudest kunoichi and the world's shyest shinobi is quite a pair. Surely there is something keeping you two friends, right?" Naruto was so red in the face, Kurenai could've sworn she saw steam coming from the poor boy's ears.

But Naruto mustered what control he had, and answered in a voice barely louder then a whisper.

"H…Hinata is r…really nice to m…me, and s…sometimes defends m...me when no one w…will." Kurenai listen intensely, so she wouldn't miss anything. "Sh…she's confident…she's b…brave…and she's….." Naruto paused, looked down, and smiled to himself. "Sh…she's someone I wish I could be." He finished, finishing with a surprising lack of stuttering.

Kurenai smirked at that last part, and leaned back in her chair. 'Hmm…. Interesting. Naruto wants to be more like Hinata…. And it so happens that both coincidentally have feelings for one another. I wonder how all of this will work out.'

"Very well, Uzumaki-san…" She said, using a more formal way of referring Naruto. "Maybe you will become a excellent Hokage...someday." Naruto didn't say anything after that. He was too surprised at the confidents she has in him for becoming the Hokage.

But the Jonin soon realized that their food was getting cold, and started eating, followed soon by Naruto.

But soon, Kurenai realized something else, while taking another gulp of Sake. Her student was wearing a bright orange and blue jumpsuit. Being some of the worst colors for a ninja to wear, she couldn't help but bring it up.

"Umm…Naruto?" The blond looked up from his meal. "Quick question…are you by any chance…color blind?" At first, Naruto frowned at the question.

"N…no, sensei."

"Then why are you wearing a bright orange jumpsuit?" She asked as she reached out, and pinched on his sleeve with her thump and middle finger. "I can honestly say that while I've been a kunoichi, I've never met another shinobi or kunoichi who wore orange in my life. And there's a good reason for that…. It's not a wise color a ninja should be wearing."

Naruto knew what she meant, and looked down. "Umm…. I…I know…." He whispered. "B…but when I would g…go out to b…buy anything, this is the k…kind of clothes th…the merchants would s…sell me."

This made sense to Kurenai…while it still angered her. The clothes merchants would probably only sell the brightest of clothes to Naruto, in hopes increasing the chance of him dying on a mission. But she refused to allow her anger show, and simply took another sip of Sake.

"Well…" She breathed, as she pulled her lips away from the saucer. "Since we are meeting with the team at 8am tomorrow…maybe you and me can meet earlier and got a new set of clothes more fitting for a ninja. What do you say? Around 6am, maybe?" Naruto smiled and nodded. "Good…. Meet me at the park and 6, and we'll go and visit a few different places for your new clothes." Then they finished up with their food, and paid for it.

**THE NEXT MORNING**

"Good morning, Uzumaki-san!" Kurenai called out, as Naruto arrived in the park precisely at 6am. He was still wearing his orange and blue jumpsuit…but that was about to change today.

The Jinchuuriki smiled faintly. "Umm…. G…good morning, K…Kurenai sensei…" He greeted, and shyly waved as he neared her. Kurenai then said that whatever she buys, he could pay her back when they start going on missions…but wouldn't have to pay immediately.

"OK…where to look first?" Kurenai asked aloud. Most of the stores and merchants that were already open, knew Naruto, and shot him glares and dirty looks.

And like yesterday, Kurenai returned those glares.

But as they walked down the street, Naruto noticed that Team 7 was walking their way, minas Kakashi. As if a reflex, Naruto slowed down, and walked behind Kurenai. Kurenai also noticed Team 7, and saw that Sasuke had a evil grin on his face…as did Sakura.

"Well, well, well…what do we have here?" Sakura started in her annoying voice. "Hey…Sasuke-kun? What do you see?" The Uchiha smirked.

"It looks like a cry-baby coward to me, Sakura-chan. I guess we should…." Sasuke was about to insult Naruto again, when Kiba growled at him.

Thankfully, Kiba was still Naruto's friend, was there to stop Sasuke. "Shut up, Sasuke-teme!" He then turned, and smiled at Naruto. "Hey dude. What are you up to?" He asked, ignoring the scowl Sasuke sent him, and the annoying protest by Sakura for talking to "Her" Sasuke-kun. Naruto blushed, and looked down.

"H…hello, Kiba-san…. Me and m…my sensei are g…going to find me s…some new clothes…. And then t…train with Hinata-chan a…and Chouji-san." Kiba thought shopping being the first thing a sensei did with one of her students was strange…but he smiled, nevertheless.

"Cool…" Sasuke chuckled at the "shopping" part, and Sakura seemed ready to say something smart. So Kiba continued. "Me and my team are heading to training field 7.… To do some stupid "Bell Test" will Kakashi sensei." He groaned.

Kurenai silently felt sorry for the Inuzuka…Kakashi's Bell Test was heard to be brutal, and knew that having the Uchiha and Haruno on his team, he'd surely have more difficulties then he should have to.

"Well…good luck to you and your team, Inuzuka-san…" Kurenai said with a faint grin on her face. "It was nice meeting you." Kiba blushed, and looked down, embarrassed.

"Umm…. S…sure thing, Kurenai sensei." Then Kiba's little puppy began barking to him. "Ah shut up Akamaru!" Kiba growled, as he picked the puppy up by his neck, and placed him on his head. "See ya, man…." Kiba sighed.

Kiba and his team finally waked by, with Sasuke giving a evil glare. Kurenai match his glare with on of hers, which said, "Mess with him, then mess with me…." and he then quickly looked ahead.

'That's what I thought…' The kunoichi thought, then looked back at her student. "That Inuzuka boy looks rather nice, Naruto-san." She stated. "I just hope he's able to cope being on Kakashi's team." Naruto looked up, and grinned.

"Y…yes. Kiba-san is a…also a good f…friend." The blond stammered. And inside, Kurenai was glad he had a friend among his enemies…. Maybe Kiba could find a way of taking the two bullies for a wild ride.

But now, they had something they had to do. And finally, they came across a store, where the owner didn't know or care about Naruto's prisoner. The man saw the two shinobi walking his way, and smiled delightfully. He walked outside his store to greet the two.

"Good morning…" He began cheerfully. "My name is Harisha Minaki, and this is my store." Seeing as this man didn't seem to mind Naruto being there, and didn't give him a dirty look, Kurenai smiled, and shook his hand.

"Good morning, Minaki-san. I'm Kurenai Yuuhi and this is my student, Naruto Uzumaki." And to Kurenai's relief, the man didn't freak out when Naruto's name was announced. "We need to replace that orange disaster he's wearing." She said, pointing at the bright jumpsuit.

Harisha saw it, and agreed. "I see…. Yeah, I don't blame you. Being a ninja, orange will most likely be the color that kills you." He chuckled. He then pointed in to the back of his store, where a large sign labeled "Ninja Wear" was. Kurenai smiled, and led Naruto back there.

There was a wide selection of materials to choose from, and nearly all of the clothing was ink black. All the others were either dark gray or camouflage color. And they all came in various types of materials. Some had built in elbow pads and knee pads, some had built in Shuriken and Kunai holsters.

"Wow…. Now this is a store, huh Naruto?" Kurenai sighed, as she checked out the prices of the clothing. It was reasonable, for how good they were. And when she turned to face her student, he himself was caught up with the large selection of clothes to choose from. The Jonin merely chuckled, and handed him a handful of coins.

"Go ahead and pick out a set of clothes, Naruto…. I'll be outside, waiting until you're finished." Naruto smiled, and went about looking at the rest of the store. She thanked Harisha for being so polite towards her, and asked if he'd help Naruto pick out some decent ninja clothes.

"Of course." Then he walked up behind Naruto, and started naming off facts about the materials and their functions.

'Oh…I'm so coming here when I need clothes….' The kunoichi thought as she walked out the door, and leaned against the building. She was quite proud of herself. She was doing a excellent job in helping Naruto become a excellent ninja…. There was still a long ways to go, and the painful shyness to overcome…but Kurenai just figured that that was what a Jonin was for, to help her students.

A few minutes had passed, and she began staring off into space, deep in thought. A few more minutes passed, and she finally snapped back into reality, when someone snapped their fingers in her face. She shook her head, turned, and saw Kakashi, reading his little orange book.

"Hmm…. Shopping on your first day as a Jonin, Kurenai?" He sounded uninterested, but that was because he was reading. "You are such a woman. You just couldn't help but go on a shopping spree, could you?"

Normally, if that was just some random guy who said that, Kurenai would've cast a high level Genjutsu on him, for thinking all women were addicted to shopping. But since this was Kakashi, there would be no point in bringing out the feminist inside her.

"Morning, Kakashi…" Kurenai groaned, rubbing her temples. "I'm here with Naruto, buying him a new ninja outfit. That orange eyesore would prove to be his undoing if I didn't do anything about it….. So, what's your excuse today?" The one eyes ninja sighed, and put away his book.

"I got lost in the road of life…." He responded, with his visible eye making a "U" and chuckled. "I wonder how'd they'll react to that."

"Probably as well as any hot-headed Inuzuka would." The kunoichi answered with a sly grin. "I just hope you know what you're in for, Hatake…. A Inuzuka, a Haruno and a Uchiha…. Where as the Inuzuka wouldn't be bad by himself, the other two are surely to provoke many arguments." The legendary "Copy Cat" ninja scratched the back of his head, and mumbled something to himself.

"Don't remind me….." Then, when Kurenai didn't have anything to say after that, he continued. "Good call on Naruto, though…."

"What?" Kurenai asked, smirking, and with one eyebrow raised.

"You were right about him being better off on your team then mine…" He admitted. "Thinking about it now, putting the boy on my team would be torture to him. Sasuke and Sakura would torment him, and I don't want to have to deal with that when on missions. I'll need a team that could stand up for themselves, and not just hade behind someone else…. And besides…you could probably teach him something…." And with that, the man walked off, in a completely different direction his students took earlier.

'Lazy son of a….' Kurenai thought, but was also happy to hear the aloof man admit something. Normally, he'd just blow something like that off, and let it go unheard. And it also felt nice to see that the most unlikely person also thought she was a better sensei for Naruto.

The sound of the cash register caught Kurenai's attention. She turned, and was pleasantly surprised at how Naruto looked.

Naruto Uzumaki no longer wore his traditional orange and blue jumpsuit. Now, he wore a pair of ink black slacks, with built in Shuriken and Kunai holsters, and built in knee pads. He also replaced his blue sandals with black ones, to match his pants. On his torso, he sported a long, sleeveless black trench coat, with only his fishnet shirt underneath, showing his surprisingly well maintained chest. On his hands were dark gray fingerless gloves, with a long stainless steel strip going across the knuckles. And around his neck, hung his forehead protector.

With a light red glow underneath his cheeks, Naruto grinned faintly. "U…umm…. Wh…what do y…you think, K…Kurenai sensei?"

The woman scanned her students new attire, and smiled. He looked more like a ninja now. He looked more serious, and less obvious. And secretly…Kurenai thought Naruto looked absolutely handsome.

But being the tease she is, she whistled. "Wow, who's the incredibly attractive young man I see before me? Surely it can't be Naruto Uzumaki…there's not a scrap of orange on this ninja." Then she winked at him. Naruto's face would've made the red of a lobster look pink in comparison. The Jonin snickered when Naruto tried to compose a sentence, and decided that now was enough.

"But seriously, Naruto…you look more like a respectable shinobi now. I'm sure that the whole village will be surprised when they see you…not to mention a certain Hyuuga girl…" She whispered the last part to herself, and wasn't heard by her student.

She looked at her watch. 6:42am. "Wow…we've been shopping longer then I thought…." She said, as she began contemplating what to do now. Then, her stomach let out a low growl.

Now, it was Kurenai's turn to blush with embarrassment.

Naruto looked at his teacher, and chuckled. "Y…you hungry, Kurenai sensei?" Dumb question…but ended up provoking a answer.

"It seems I am, Naruto. It seems I am…." The woman mumbled. "Let's go back to that café for a little breakfast…and see how those jerks react to your new look." So, the sensei and student marched off towards the café they visited last night.

**AT 8 A.M.**

Kurenai and Naruto returned to the park, after a satisfying breakfast. Hinata and Chouji were already at there meeting place, and turned just as they neared. And even from a distance away, Naruto and Kurenai could see the surprised expressions on their faces. Hinata's white eyes were stretched to their limits, and a light blush became more noticeable as they got closer.

Chouji had his eyes glued on Naruto, even as he was inhaling a bag of potato chips.

"Good morning, you two…" Kurenai began, pushing her shy student in front of her. "Doesn't Naruto look good, this morning? I took him shopping this morning, and thought that we would get rid of his orange jumpsuit. But we need a second opinion…what do you think, Hinata?"

Hinata blushed when she saw that the boy before her was wearing a open trench coat, and a see-through fishnet shirt. She did something uncharacteristic…she turned her head in embarrassment. "Umm…. I think Naruto-kun l…looks very ninja-like…."

Kurenai caught the stutter, and smirked. 'Oh…you find Naruto cute, don't you?' She giggled in her mind. Seeing Konohaguke's most un-lady like kunoichi blush and stutter proved how she felt about Naruto.

"You look like a badass, dude!" Chouji praised. "You look like you can do some serious damage if messed with…where did you get that stuff, anyway?" Before Naruto could answer his question, Kurenai jumped in.

"Maybe I'll take you and Hinata on a shopping trip later…now we need start our first training session."

Hinata leapt into the air and cheered, hearing that they're going to start doing something exciting. Chouji grunted, and stuffed his now empty potato chip bag into his coat pocket. Naruto merely fiddled with his fingers, and looked down.

"Today, we're going to test you Taijutsu skills. We'll start with sparring exercises. Light hand to hand combat, no Jutsus…." She then looked at her student, and decided which two would go first. "Hinata…you and Naruto will start."

Naruto's eyes popped open when he heard he'd go up against Hinata right off the bat. He looked at the heir, and noticed she had a friendly smile. She nodded, went out into the middle of the park, and dropped into her fighting stance.

The blond didn't know what to do…but nevertheless, he followed Hinata's lead. He didn't have a fighting stance, so he just stood there, waiting for Kurenai to give further instructions.

"OK…here's how it will go…" She began. "When I say go, you two will begin a mock fight. Your strikes will be soft, so that if you get a hit, it doesn't actually harm the other person. The match will end when one of you manages to pin the other on the ground. Any questions?"

When neither spoke up, Kurenai started the match. "BEGIN!"

Hinata was the first to move. She activated her Byakugan, just to be able to see Naruto's chakra points. She wasn't going to be pumping chakra out, though. She was merely seeing how well her aim would be if she needed to use it. She dashed towards Naruto, who placed his arms in the air in a blocking style, much like that of a boxer.

The Hyuuga sent a palm strike at the blond, going for a light smack on the chest. Naruto hesitated, but was able to swing his arm, and derailed Hinata's attack.

This surprised Hinata…and what was more surprising, was that before she could catch herself, Naruto sent a light palm strike of his own into her shoulder. Hinata frantically did a back flip backwards, and stared at her blond teammate. While the attack was sloppy and undisciplined, it was Hinata underestimating him that led to her being the first on to be struck.

"Looks like our blond friend has been hiding something from us…" Hinata breathed, receiving a guilty blush from Naruto. But Hinata, nevertheless, nodded to Naruto for getting the first hit in the fight. "Looks like I should start taking this seriously…I don't want to be beaten by a BOY."

When Hinata said that, it was like a reverse version of when a boy would say something about losing to a girl. And it caused Kurenai to laugh out loud.

Then, Hinata tried again.

She dashed at Naruto again, this time, ready. She sent a barrage of palm strikes at Naruto, who was able to block and/or dodge most of them. Hinata got a hit in when his stomach was open. She crouched, and sent a palm strike up at a angle, and got a solid smack against his torso.

Naruto back peddled, and nodded at the strike. Hinata grinned, and rushed at him again. Now, the girl sent a mixture of palm thrusts and sweeping kicks Naruto's direction. But thanks to Naruto's change in outfits, he was much more flexible, and found that he could move much easier.

But the match didn't last long. When Naruto sent a roundhouse kick Hinata's way, the kunoichi latched onto his ankle with one hand. This cause Naruto to be stuck in a awkward position…unable to so much as move. Then Hinata tacked him to the ground, straddled his chest, and pinned him down.

"HAHAHA! I gotcha!" The girl chuckled. "I win! I win! I win!" She then realized what kind of position she and Naruto were in. Hinata pinned both of Naruto's wrists against the ground. Her legs clamped down on both sides of Naruto's torso, and her face was mere inches away from his.

Both went beat red, and didn't move so much as a inch.

Kurenai, fortunately, DID have a camera on hand, and snapped the perfect picture of her two students. She then hid the camera before either Naruto or Hinata turned to see it.

"Good…very good, you two." She assured. "Good recovery, decent methods of fighting styles…. But you two still need some work." The statement was mostly aimed at Naruto…but she wasn't going to point him out specifically. "You two sit down and cool off, while me and Chouji have a quick go at it."

Naruto and Hinata nodded, and took a seat against the old tree. Naruto was still blushing from what just happened, while Hinata only had a little shade of pink on her face. But most of it was from her attacking Naruto, and she was a little winded.

"You did good, Naruto-kun…" Hinata said, with a confident smile plastered on her face. "You were better then I thought…. Maybe a little undisciplined, but nothin' that can't be fixed." Naruto looked at her, with a uncertain look.

He wasn't sure if Hinata was trying her best when fighting him.

"U…umm, H…Hinata-chan?" He started, with a shaky, quiet voice. "Did y…you go e…easy when you w…were f…fighting me?" Hinata raised a eyebrow at the question. "I…I mean…. Did y…you try your h…hardest, wh…when you and m…me fought?"

Hinata frowned. "Of course, Naruto-kun." She said, pretending to sound offended. "I wouldn't go easy on you. Not in a million years. I seriously sent you my best…and you are good enough to hold your own." Naruto blushed and looked down to the ground.

"S…sorry…" He mumbled.

"For what?" Hinata asked, placing her hands on her hips.

Meanwhile, Kurenai watched Naruto and Hinata talk, while she had the Akimichi caught in a headlock. 'They look so cute together….' And in a flash a speed, she flipped Chouji on his back, and placed her knee on his chest…pinning him down.

"Not as quick as Naruto or Hinata…but with your family's technique, you have the best Taijutsu on this team." Kurenai was trying to make Chouji feel better, for getting pinned so fast. It didn't help that much…but Chouji was still managed to fake a smile.

'A little slow…but a few days of training should help him.' He then sent Chouji to sit with Naruto and Hinata. Hinata slugged Chouji in the shoulder, and said she'd help him and Naruto on their Taijutsu training.

"OK…that was good." Kurenai sighed. "You all seem to have different methods of fighting, and we will deal with that later. Let's continue with some exercises…and tomorrow, I'll take us go on our first mission."

**TO BE CONTINUED……..**

HAHAHA! The Cliffhanger no Jutsu RULES!!! Just so you all know, the odds of me NOT ending each chapter with a Cliffhanger no Jutsu is slim, at best. Just fair warning. I hope you all like how I made Naruto's new look. And, I need to confess something…… Whole scene with Kurenai taking Naruto to dinner, and taking him shopping the next morning was inspired by S'TarKan's story Team 8.… S'Tarkan…if you read this, please forgive me. I just thought that would be a great idea for any Naruto/Team 8 story. But besides that, everything else is original. I'm just a little disappointed that chapter 3 didn't break 100 reviews…but, not harm done. The website was sketchy then, and not everybody got their alerts. Anyway, please leave reviews when you finish this chapter. I worked pretty hard on it…and would like to thank Chewie Cookies for looking over it when I'm done. And don't forget to check out my new poll, and choose what my next story should be. 1. Another Naruto/Deadpool Crossover? Or 2. Where Hinata is born in the Brach family. You decide! And don't worry, the Bathhouse Incident will be revealed in due time. Until next time! PEACE!


	5. D Ranked

Pairing: NaruHina and more as the story progresses.

Rating: M

Chapter 5: D-Ranked

"Really?!" Hinata asked, in a higher than usual voice. "We might be going on our first mission tomorrow?" Kurenai grinned, and nodded. "Are you sure we're ready for our first mission so soon? I mean, we just became Gennins yesterday." Hinata was excited, but she felt like she needed to make sure that their sensei wasn't playing a joke on them.

"Yes, Hinata-chan. Tomorrow, you three should be ready to perform a basic D-Ranked mission." The older woman sighed. She wasn't sure if any of her students knew what their missions will be like, and figured she wouldn't have them be disappointed when they receive it.

"A D-Ranked mission is the lowest kind of mission a ninja could possibly receive…" She continued, causing Hinata's excited cries to die down. "There are four types of missions a shinobi or kunoichi could get, because it has little to no risk. When you are assigned a D-Ranked mission, it's more like doing someone's chores for them. You know…walking dogs, picking up trash, baby sitting, gardening, washing dishes, etc."

Hinata's face, along with Chouji's fell dramatically. The thought of a ninja being made to do chores was, in a way, very depressing. The Jonin saw their miserable expressions, and took on a serious gaze.

"Don't even try that, you two. There's no way Sarutobi would send a team, filled with Gennins straight out of the academy, on a mission higher then a D-Ranked mission. You all will need to learn how to work as a team, learn better Taijutsu, Genjutsu and Ninjutsu before I would even consider agreeing on a C-Ranked mission."

When Hinata or Chouji had anything to say, Kurenai continued. "Good…. Now, let's see what you three have to offer." She pointed at Hinata. "How about you, Hinata-chan?" A confident grin slowly appeared on the Hyuuga's face, as she looked around.

"Sure thing, Kurenai-sensei." There, right in front of them, was a old oak tree. There were barely any leafs on it, and had a dark gray color to it. She got in front of it, and began to take heavy breaths. Hinata then performed the required hand signs. "Byakugan!" The blood vessels around her eyes budged out, and chakra began to radiate off her hands.

Naruto and Chouji looked at this with confusion. Neither boys saw Hinata perform her Jyuuken at her full potential before. But now…they were going to see first hand at what the Hyuuga could do.

Blue chakra glowed like a lantern in the midnight. And when she dropped into the Jyuuken stance, she delivered a palm strike in the center on the old oak. When her hand connected with the bark, her chakra busted through her hands, and into the tree. And as if she struck the bark with a Kanabo, the bark caved in in itself. When Hinata pulled her hand away, what was left was a indent, the same shape and size of her hand.

"Very good, Hinata-chan …" Kurenai praised. "You seem to know the basics of the Jyuuken." But when she turned, Naruto and Chouji still had a confused look showing. And, seeing as it was unavoidable, the woman took a deep breath.

"Hinata-chan is a skilled user of the Jyuuken, the Gentle Fist fighting style of the Hyuuga clan. You see, the Hyuuga's Kekkei Genkai, the Byakugan, or all seeing eye, allows a member to see what a regular person can't. the Byakugan also allows the user to see in all directions at once, so there is virtually no way to sneak up on one." And then Kurenai paused, so Naruto and Chouji could get that through their heads. Then, she finished.

"A Hyuuga could also see a person's chakra network, and detect their chakra points. They pump a steady stream of chakra through their fingers, and strike the tiny points with pin point accuracy. If one is struck, your chakra network will be altered, and the victim would have difficulty with his chakra flow and control."

When she was done explaining the Hyuuga family original techniques, Kurenai turned to Chouji. A confident smirk came on Kurenai's face when she pointed to the plump shinobi, and then to a group of trees. "You think you can show us what you can do?" Knowing what she meant, Chouji snickered, and went into a clearing.

He put away his food for a second, and planted both feet square on the ground. After taking a few heavy breaths, he began forming the necessary hand signs. "Baika no Jutsu!" He cried when he was finished with the FIRST part of his family's original jutsu. Suddenly, his body began to grow to outrageous proportions. But only his middle torso grew, not his arms or legs. And when it was done, he had grown to the size of a good sized boulder. And once that was done, he followed it up with the final part of the jutsu. "Nikudan Sensha!!" His arms, legs and head retracted into his massive body as if a turtle would. Blue chakra erupted from his arm and leg sockets, and propelled him forward at high speeds, and was heading for a group of five trees. And in a matter of seconds, Chouji's massive body slammed against the trees, and flattened them as if he was knocking down one.

Once the trees were demolished, the giant ball of mass slowed to a stop, and morphed back into Chouji's normal form. And Kurenai was complimenting him as he rejoined the team. "Excellent job, Chouji." Said boy chuckled with embarrassed pleasure, and scratched the back of his head. "The Akimichi's jutsu allows the user to become a nearly unstoppable wrecking ball in battle, as you all can plainly see by the damage he was able to deliver upon those sturdy trees over there. Which makes Chouji's family well known for being masters of heavy hitting Taijutsu techniques."

'OK…. Two students down, one to go…' She thought, as she glanced towards the shyest member of team 8, Naruto Uzumaki. And once he and Hinata were done congratulating Chouji, Kurenai raised a hand and pointed at the blond shinobi. "Alright, Uzumaki. It's your turn to shine. Show use what you can do."

Naturally, Naruto looked down nervously and blushed. He normally tried his best to keep attention off of himself. But on the other hand, being a shinobi meant you couldn't…. and shouldn't be scared of performing a simple exercise. But nevertheless, Naruto timidly walked into the clearing, fiddling with his index fingers. He stopped, and tried to memorized the hand signs from the night before.

"Come on Naruto-kun!" Hinata cheered, pumping her hands in the air with excitement. "Show us what you're made of!" Hearing the kunoichi cheer for him caused Naruto's face to take on a deep shade of crimson. And with that boost of confidence, Naruto took a deep breath, and started performing advanced hand signs. Since the Bunshin no Jutsu was a Jonin level jutsu, it required more hand signs then Chouji's Nikudan Sensha.

A few seconds of endless hand signs passed, and Naruto finally came to the last hand sign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!" He cried, and a explosion of snow white smoke filled the entire clearing. And while both Kurenai and Chouji were temporarily blinded from the smoke, Hinata's Byakugan allowed her to see through the smoke, and see what Naruto had done. And what she saw left her in awe, and her mouth hanging open.

When the smoke cleared, a glorious sight was seen, if you were a ninja, that is. In the clearing was no longer one Naruto, but instead, over 100 clones of Naruto occupied the entire field. Kurenai HEARD about how Naruto beat Mizuki, but it was a whole other thing to actually see what Iruka meant by "A field of orange and yellow". Chouji was leaping into the air, praising Naruto on what he did, while Hinata stayed in her own little world, amazed at what jutsu her shy friend managed to perform. Kurenai saw the Hyuuga's bewildered daze, and giggled to herself.

"That was a excellent performance, Uzumaki-san." The Jonin said, causing Naruto to act even more timid and embarrassed. "The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu is a Jonin level technique. Unlike the lower level Bunshin no Jutsu, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu creates actual clones of the user, instead of mere images. And when on a mission, it would be nice to have a Genin who has the ability to perform a higher level jutsu." Naruto rejoined the group, where Chouji, surprisingly enough, was the first to praise Naruto, not Hinata.

"Dude, that was awesome! I can't believe you mastered a Jonin level technique!" Chouji the hooked his arm around Naruto's shoulder, and administered a friendly nuggie. "This team is going to kick some serious ass!" Naruto smiled faintly, and turned to his normally louder friend. Hinata, of all people, had a big streak of red going across her cheeks, which was uncharacteristic of her.

Hinata saw that Naruto was looking at her, so she shook herself and regained her composure. "That was amazing, Naruto-kun." She started, in a quiet tone, which was again, uncharacteristic. "I guess you have a few trick up your sleeves, huh?"

Kurenai, personally, loved to watch younger shinobi flirt. Of course, neither were really flirting, but it was just as good. It kind of reminded her of how she used to act when she was Hinata's age. The way she's a total Tomboy one second, but when introduced to a boy she likes, she turns into another love struck, nervous kunoichi. 'Aw…. Young love.' But she then remembered that they should be training.

"OK, everybody. We should probably be getting back to training. If we are going to go on a mission tomorrow, we'll have to warm up now, so that we're ready." This excited Hinata to no end. She started impatiently asking Kurenai what kinds of exercised they'd be doing, and how long until they graduated up to a C-ranked mission.

**EIGHT HOURS LATER**

"Well, I'm pleasantly surprised at how long you all lasted." Kurenai snickered. She looked as if she has barely been working out, unlike her students. All three student's were sprawled across the ground, breathing heavily. Their clothes had bits of dirt and grass clinging to them, and the collars of all their shirts were drenched with sweat.

"F…finally! We… (Gasp!) we're finally (Gasp!) done!" Chouji gasped, as his belly went in and out rapidly, getting in as much air as possible. Kurenai sighed, and walked over to help her badly winded students up. Then she looked at her watch. 7:12pm. "Well, I guess we'll call it a day. You all can go home and…."

"K…Kurenai-sensei!" Hinata interrupted, still trying to catch her breath. "Aren't you going to tell us the story?" The Jonin raised her eyebrow, not knowing what her student was referring to. "The story about you, Iruka-sensei and the bathhouse?" A devilish grin crept on Kurenai's face when she remembered.

"Alright, I suppose we have enough time for a quick story." A satisfied look appeared on Hinata's face, as she, Chouji and Naruto sat with their legs crossed, ready for the story. Kurenai cleared her throat, and leaned against the tree. "It happened a few years ago, when I was walking with my friend Anko…."

**FLASHBACK**

It was mid afternoon in the city of Konohagakure, and Kurenai Yuuhi and her friend Anko Mitarashi were out on a "Girls night out". "Anyway, did you see Kakashi today, Kurenai?" Anko asked in a perverted tone. "He sure looks sexy with the mask and ANBU getup, doesn't he?" For a long while, Anko has had a crush on the famous Copy Cat Ninja, and wasn't shy about it. But Kurenai was in her own little world. She'd just returned from a tedious D-ranked mission where she needed to help a woman with her garden, and she felt dirty.

"Let's go to the next bathhouse we see, Anko. The woman's large ass garden left me feeling muggy." Kurenai yawned, stretching to relax her aching muscles. Her friend had no objections, and continued to talk about what she saw Kakashi did that day. That continued for five whole minutes until they finally arrived at a girls only bathhouse. "You coming?"

"Nah…." Anko said, as she spotted, you guessed it, Kakashi walking their way. "I have myself a man to bag. I'll tell you how it plays out tomorrow!" Then she was off. A tired smile came upon Kurenai's face, as she entered the nearly empty bathhouse.

'Pervert…..' She thought, and she began to remove her clothes. Ayame, Tsume Inuzuka and Hana Inuzuka were already in the steaming water, relaxing to the soothing feeling. "Hello Ayame-san, Tsume-san, Hana-san." Now completely naked, Kurenai sank into the warm pool, and released a sigh of relief. The other women smiled, and nodded their heads at Kurenai's arrival.

"Another D-ranked mission, huh?" Tsume asked, already knowing the answer. "At least you didn't have to rescue a damned cat today! Me and Hana had to use every ounce of self control NOT to slaughter that fur ball." Hana and Ayame giggled as the Inuzuka head's statement. Kurenai chuckled, and began soaking her hair.

"I spent most of my day in some woman's garden, pulling weeds and moving soil. Anko was supposed to be joining me, but she's busy trying to "Bag" Kakashi Hatake." Tsume, Ayame and Hana all chuckled. Anko's obsession with the one eyed ninja was well known, and was even known by those that aren't of ninja rank. "She's a open pervert…. Almost rivaling that Jiraiya ero-sennin." But as she began on a different topic, they all heard another voice from outside the bathhouse…. Yelling at someone.

"Lady Hinata! Get back here at once!" The person yelling was the Chunnin instructor at the Konohagakure Ninja Academy, Iruka Umino. And he was chasing after the energetic young kunoichi in training, beginning prankster and next in line for the Hyuuga clan, Hinata Hyuuga. The girl was apparently playing hookie again this week, but was discovered by her sensei.

"Sound's like Hiashi's girl is at it again, I see." Tsume sighed, as she dipped her head underneath the water, soaking her hair. Kurenai knew the girl since she was a young girl. She was the woman who escorted the Tomboyish girl to the academy, and knew she'd prove to be a handful for Iruka.

Outside, Iruka was right on Hinata's heels, and was about to catch her. But unbeknownst to the scare faced man, the small girl was leading him directly towards the bathhouse entrance. So, a evil idea formed in Hinata's mind, and she picked up the pace. They weren't but a mere few inches from the entrance, when Hinata just stopped. Just stopped. She bent down into a ball at the last second, and sent her sensei tumbling forward.

"Well…." Kurenai sighed, standing up in the pool, exposing everything. "I guess I'll go out and help Iru…." Her sentence was interrupted when the very man she was talking about came tripping through the entrance at a high speed. And before Kurenai could do much as bat a eyelash, Iruka flew in, and landed right atop of her naked form. They were both submerged, and Iruka opened his eyes to see what had just happened. But the only thing he saw was Kurenai's bare breasts, mere centimeters from his face.

His entire face went sun burnt red, and he leapt from the water with astonishing speed. "K…Kurenai-san! Please forgive me!" Was all he said before he bolted from the woman's bathhouse, with one hand covering his eyes, and the other keeping the blood coming from his nose from pouring into the pool water. When Kurenai came out of the water, an extremely embarrassed/confused look was plastered to her face.

"Wh…what just happened?" When she turned to the other girls, they were gasping for air because they were laughing so hard.

**END FLASHBECK**

"And that's what happened." Kurenai finish, with a mild blush showing on her cheeks. "I've been toying with him about that ever since, just like when I picked you three up…. And I suppose I have you to thank for that, _Hinata-san_." Said Hyuuga girl blush, knowing that she was the cause for that whole situation. Chouji and Naruto were both also beat red In the face, imagining what Iruka must've seen. "But now you all need to go and get some sleep. Meet me here tomorrow, and we'll visit Sarutobi for our first mission."

**THE NEXT MORNING**

Kurenai was waiting for her students to arrive at the designated spot for their first mission. The sun was out, birds were singing and there were absolutely no clouds in the sky. It seemed like that best kind of day for their first mission. "What a lovely day…. Hope it lasts." The kunoichi sighed, stretching her arms and legs.

"Hi, Kure-chan!" A loud booming voice came from behind the tree near her. The rough voice was very familiar to Kurenai, and she mentally groaned. Behind the tree was her long time friend, and Chunnin instructor, Anko Mitarashi. "How's you doin'?"

"Hello, Anko-chan…. I'm just waiting for my Genin team, and then we're going on our first mission." Kurenai liked the woman…. But at times she could be too much. "My team should be here any minute. You think you could beat it before they get here?" Anko frowned.

"Awwwww….. Kure-chan!" The grown woman whined childishly. "I wanna see! I wanna see! And I hear that handsome Uzumaki boy is on your team, too! A little shy for my taste, but I guess I…."

"Hey Kakashi!" Kurenai shouted, in a panicking tone. And as is God was smiling on her, Kakashi was in fact walking their way, purposely being late for another team meeting. Anko turned, and a mischievous grin appeared on her face.

"Bye, Kure-chan!" And just like that, she was gone. The famous one eyed ninja saw the charging girl, swore underneath his breath, turned, and dashed in the other direction. Anko cried his name passionately, as she slowly closed in on her pray.

'Pervert….' Kurenai thought, when she turned and saw her team walking in her direction. 'Good…. They didn't see her. The LAST thing we need is for Anko corrupting Hinata's mind with her perverted ways.' "Good morning, team!" She called out, waving her hands. "Are you ready for your first mission?" Hinata was the first one to reply.

"Hell yeah!" She cried, as she made a "V" for victory sigh with both hands. Chouji was nodding his head, as he devoured a bag of regular potato chips. And Naruto was looking down, fiddling his fingers, as usual. "Lets get going! I'm ready!" She seemed extra excited, since this was her first mission as a kunoichi. Naruto and Chouji seemed excited, but they were nowhere near as enthusiastic as their female teammate.

'Again…. Thank. God. She. Didn't. Meet. Anko!' Kurenai repeated, as she began to lead the three kids towards the Hokage tower. And as usual, there were some people who bowed respectfully when they saw Hinata, and sent dark glares at Naruto. Both Kurenai and Hinata returned their glares, as Naruto looked down. 'Damn people…' That continued until they reached the Hokage tower. They walked up the stares, and knocked on the door. They heard a soft voice, allowing them to enter.

Inside was Sarutobi, working on some paper work, and drinking some green tea. "Ah! Good morning, Kurenai-san!" The old man greeted happily. "It's good to see you and your team are already wanting to do some missions for me." Kurenai smiled, and took a seat across the leader of Konohagakure.

"Hello, Sarutobi-sama." She returned the greeting. "Yes, Hinata-chan here is itching for a mission, so I figured this would shut her up." Kurenai chuckled when she see Hinata pouting. "Do you have a mission for us?" The elderly man smiled, and looked through his large stack of papers. He shifted through the pile of papers, looking for a suitable mission for a first time ninja team. A few seconds of looking, he pulled out a file.

"Oh. Here's one." Sarutobi sighed. "Looks like the Fire Lord's wife lost her cat, Tora. She needs someone to scout out and find her." Naruto, Chouji, Hinata, and even Kurenai let out a loud sigh. Tora was well known to the ninja ranks. That stupid cat runs from her master a maximum of three times a month.

'I swear I'll skin that damn cat and make a purse out of it!' Kurenai screamed in her head. "Thank you, Sarutobi-sama." Kurenai said, as she faked a smile. Sarutobi knew she was faking it, and let out a loud hearty laugh. And as Kurenai and her team left the office, Sarutobi looked back at his work, and sighed.

'Some Kurenai…..'

**IN THE FOREST**

"Hinata…. Do you see that target?" Kurenai asked in the headset. She and her team were scattered throughout the forest, stalking the elusive feline. Hinata had her Byakugan activated, and was scanning the surrounding area.

"Yes…. Around 20 yards east of Naruto and Chouji." She answered back. "Did you hear that, you two?" Chouji and Naruto were stationed atop a large tree, 20 yards away from Tora.

"Yeah, we see it." Chouji replied. "Me and Naruto are going in now. You and Kurenai-sensei round back. So if she rabbits, you two can catch her." Tora was a tan house cat, with a white stomach. She was licking her paw when both shinobi dive-bombed from the tree. "Come here, you fuzz ball!" The plump boy cried. But the cat's responsive reflexes were great, and moved the second she heard Chouji's voice. She pounced forward and dashed into the forest. The two landed on the ground, and started to pursue after her.

"Me and Chouji are a…after Tora." Naruto said, as he passed Chouji and closed in on the frisky cat. But right before he got close enough to catch her, Tora stopped on a dime and turned left. Not even Naruto's reflexes were that good, and ended up running past where the cat was heading. "Lost her."

Then the sound of feet landing on the ground behind the bushes were heard. Oddly enough, it was the same bushes that Tora ran into. "Not me, Naruto-kun." Hinata's voice was heard on the headset. He turned, and saw Kurenai and Hinata walking out from the bushes, with the cat purring in Hinata's arms. "Thanks for sending her my way…. She's a cutie, like you." Kurenai, Hinata and Chouji laughed when Naruto went crimson red in the face and looked away in embarrassment. The Hyuuga girl would occasionally say stuff like that to mess with the poor boy. Ever since they met, she has been like that. And as you can see, not much has chanced.

"Good job, you three." The Jonin said approvingly. "You all seem to be passable when it comes to working as a team. Normally, there would be a contest to see who would be the best Genin. I'm glad that's not the case here." Chouji smirked.

"That's because me and Naruto are aware of the fact that if we were doing that, we'd have to compete with Hinata, and face it, she can be scary as hell when she wants to be." Hinata shot him a cocky grin and a thumbs up.

"Damn straight. And don't forget it, boys!" Secretly, Kurenai absolutely adored her kunoichi student. She was so lively and not afraid to get dirt…. Not like that girlish Sakura Haruno, who'd probably complain the second she gets dirt on her. Hinata turned to Naruto, and winked, receiving another panicked response.

'Man…. She's so mean to him…. In a friendly way, anyway.' Kurenai snickered in her mind. "OK, you three. We should go ahead and bring this pain in the neck back to the Hokage tower." The students agreed, and made their way back into the village, with Hinata scratching Tora behind the ears.

**BACK AT THE TOWER**

"TORA!" The Fire Lord's wife cried when team 8 entered the office. She was a hefty woman, decorated with expensive jewelry and elegant dressed. "Mommy thought she lost you again!" The woman reached out and snatched the cat from Hinata's arms. Then started hugging and smothering the cat with affection. Tora seemed to be miserable what that was happening, and left the entire team thinking the same thing.

'Poor thing. Now wander she ran off….' "You're welcome." Kurenai said to the Lord's wife. The woman bowed, and left the room, practically suffocating the feline. Sarutobi felt the same was for the poor pet, and silently wished him good luck.

"Well, you seem to be pretty good at this." The old man chuckled, as he reached into his desk. "That wasn't even more then an hour in a half. Very impressive for your first mission." He pulled out a bag filled with coins. "D-ranked missions are normally pay very little, but the higher the mission level, the higher the pay." And after handing all the Genins a handful of money, he put the bag away and grinned. "You look different, Naruto. Did you get a haircut or something?" He laughed when the blond boy looked around, confused.

"Just kidding, boy. You look much better with that outfit, instead of the orange and blue jumpsuit." Kurenai jumped in, before either Hinata or Chouji could.

"I took him shopping for some new clothes. I felt that he should change his image if he wanted to be treated like a serious ninja." She turned to Hinata and Chouji. "And I said I'd take them shopping later…" She moaned, regretting what she promised earlier. Sarutobi raised an eyebrow, but smiled.

"Well…. I see no harm in it. You finished a mission in reasonably good time. And I don't see how their parents would object." He then turned back to his work. "You are dismissed. Enjoy yourselves." The four bowed respectively, and exited the office. 'Enjoy it, you four…. Because Tora will be back in a few days.'

To Be Continued…….

Hey there everybody! Sorry it took me a while to update this story. Busy with school and stuff. I hope you all enjoyed it. Please leave plenty of reviews and suggestions, if you have any. And please check out my other stories when you get the chance:

Evil is Only Skin Deep

Son of a Mercenary

Son of a Mercenary Pt2

Toad, the X-Man

What Ninjas Meet Mutants

The Two Demons of Konoha

Resurrection of a Angel

Hope to hear from you all soon. And please check out my poll I have posted on my profile. Asking what kind of story I should write next. Please review! PEACE!


	6. Bridge Builder

Rating: M

Pairing: Naruto/Hinata, and more as the story progresses.

Author's Notes: Hello again, everybody. So nice to be out of my slump and back writing! I hope you all liked that last chapter. You got to see Anko in her new and improved perverted self, the ever famous "Bathhouse Incident" and their first encounter with Tora, the feline from hell. I hope you all like violence and that sort of thing, because the true adventure will truly begin. That's right…. The C-ranked mission! And with this story being about Naruto and Hinata switching personas, it's surely going to be an awesome experience! But again, I accept anonymousness reviews. So please don't hesitate to say what you think about my story. Enjoy the show!

Chapter 6: Bridge Builder

A month has passed since team 8 started receiving missions. On regular days, team 8 was able to take in and complete three missions. And in that month, the team had learned new and effective jutsus. Kurenai taught everybody a different technique, so that if needed, the three could perform different combinations of moves. Naruto learned Fuuton (Wind Style) Hinata learned Suiton (Water Style) and Chouji learned Doton (Earth Style). But even after learning all these different jutsus, they stilled continued to receive D-ranked missions…. Which was starting to make Hinata a little irritated.

The team was in the Hokage's office, ready for another D-ranked assignment. "Good morning, Sarutobi-sama. Do you have any missions for us?" The Hyuuga groaned aloud at the mention of the word "Mission". To her, these weren't missions of any kind. They were chores, if anything else. But right now, all she did was groan as the old man happily shuffled through his filing cabinet.

"Hmm….. Let's see here…." He mumbled aloud to himself. "The Yamanaka family needs some help with their flower shop." Sarutobi started naming off odd jobs that needed to be done around the village. "Some dogs need to be walked at the Inuzuka estate…. Some litter needs to be picked up near the Hokage monument…" As the list went on, Hinata found herself grinding her teeth at the mission…. Until finally, she made herself and her opinions known.

"No more stupid D-ranked missions!" Her shrill voice pierced the ears of all who was in the room. Kurenai was about to silence her loud student, but Hinata's booming voice was to loud to overcome. "We deserve a assignment that a ninja could call a "Mission"! Walking people's dogs and picking up trash is NOT a mission for a ninja team. It's torture! Kurenai-sensei taught all of us different types of jutsus! But what good will they be if we never get a assignment that would require the use of jutsus?!" Naruto, Chouji and Kurenai stared in disbelief at the kunoichi as her rant continued.

"We're more than ready to take on a C-ranked mission, old man! I know Jyuuken and possess the Byakugan! Chouji is an unstoppable force when it comes down to his Nikudan Sensha! And Naruto is able to perform the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! What more does a ninja team have to possess to receive a descent mission?!" Then, childishly, Hinata turned her back at everyone, sat cross-legged, and pouted selfishly. Kurenai was massaging her throbbing temples, Naruto and Chouji were frantically looking at Hinata, then to Sarutobi, and back again. And after witnessing the girl's protest, the old man couldn't help but chuckle.

Without saying a word, Sarutobi turned away from team 8, and started rummaging through another filing cabinet. Kurenai sent Hinata a stern look, which had little affect. The Hyuuga simply grinned triumphantly, and stared at Sarutobi as he pulled out a large file. "Here we go…." Sarutobi sighed, leaning back in his chair and opening up the file. "There's a bridge builder who needs a ninja team to escort him back to his home land, Nami no Kuni. It's a low C-ranked mission…" He glances at Hinata. "But I would guess that would be alright with certain Hyuuga heiress out there who are itching for more."

Said girl giggled and scratched the back of her head. Naruto got nervous, and started twiddling with his fingers. Chouji was stuffing his face with potato chips, and Kurenai was tapping her toes impatiently. "But this is up to your entire team, Kurenai…." The old man continued, getting everybody's attention again. "If you, and all of your students agree to go, then your team can go. What do you two think?" The question was aimed at both Chouji and Naruto. The plump shinobi, finishing up with his chips, cleared his throat and answered first.

"Well…I don't really care." The Akimichi started off with a shrug. "If Kurenai and the others feel like we can handle it, I'll just go with it. A mission's a mission, no matter how you slice it…." Sarutobi chuckled at the boy's aloof attitude. "And besides, if Hinata wants to do it, I'd rather do a C-ranked mission then take her complaining and griping." The girl turned to her big boned teammate with a raised eyebrow, not knowing if she should be happy or angry at that statement.

The Hokage smiled, and turned to Naruto. "What about you, Naruto?" The blonde's head snapped up when he heard his name mentioned. "Do you think you're ready for a C-ranked mission?" And as predicted, Naruto did all of his nervous reactions. His cheeks went crimson from being the center of attention, and looked down. His knees started shaking, and his index fingers started swirling around the other. After a few seconds of awkward silence, the Jinchuuriki began to answer.

"Umm…. I th…think, umm…." The boy's nervousness him hard to understand. "Well…I think we m…might be able t…to handle a C-ranked mission…. I…if Kurenai-sensei thinks we c…can handle one…" Naruto stopped when he began to ramble on, and became inaudible. But Sarutobi heard Naruto's answer, and smiled. Hinata hooked her arm around Naruto's shoulders and gave him a nuggie, causing his face to take on a deeper shade of red. Chouji chuckled at the two, as Naruto's weak attempt of breaking Hinata's hold failed miserably.

But soon, all three students were staring directly at their sensei. All three thought they were ready for a C-ranked mission, but if Kurenai didn't think so, then they couldn't go. The Jonin cleared her throat, and took a seat at Sarutobi's desk. "Personally, I'm not too thrilled at the idea of a Genin team one month out of the academy taking on a C-ranked mission…" Hinata's face fell, Chouji was neutral, and Naruto looked at Hinata, then back at Kurenai. "But…." Hearing what Kurenai sighed caused Hinata's head to spike up again. "They have shown me excellent teamwork in their missions, and have done well in their training. I suppose that they could handle a C-ranked mission…. For now."

"HELL YEAH!" Hinata cried, now even a fraction of a second later. "We're finally getting a ACTUAL mission! No more babysitting! No more trash collecting! No more dish washing! No more CHORES!!" Unable to contain her excitement, she turned and gave Naruto a hug. A few seconds of being held, Naruto fainted, and slumped backwards, with Hinata realizing what she has done. "Oops…. Gomen Naruto-kun…. Naruto-kun?" She started poking Naruto's unconscious body with her foot. Chouji and Kurenai started laughing at what happened, and Sarutobi sat in his chair, smiling at the team.

As Hinata and Chouji tried to wake their fallen teammate up, the old man continued. "You can tell Naruto when he wakes up that the mission is at 8:30am. It's going to be a long trip, so tell him that he should pack the essentials." Kurenai and the others nodded their head. When it was clear Naruto wasn't waking up, Kurenai sighed. She walked up, picked the unconscious boy up and through him over her shoulders like a sack. They then walked out of the office, with Chouji snickering at Hinata for an unknown reason.

_**15 MINUTES LATER**_

"Naruto-kun…? Naruto-kun?!" Hinata kept repeating, gently smacking her hands against the unconscious boy's face. Ever since Hinata hugged him in the Hokage's office, Naruto has been out cold. The girl tried yelling in his ears, and that didn't work. She tried shaking him viciously, and that didn't work. While Hinata and Chouji thought of different methods of waking their sleeping friend, Kurenai sat lazily on the park bench, enjoying watching her team work. Finally, after none of their other methods worked, the woman let out a loud sigh, and got up.

'I can see this might become a regular thing….' She groaned in her head, as she rummaged through her pouch. 'I just hope Hinata 'Accidentally' hugs Naruto when we're not on missions. Him fainting while on duty could spell trouble. Kurenai then pulled out some smelling salt, and placed it underneath Naruto's nose. Once the scent of the foul substance entered Naruto's nostrils, the blonde's eyes snapped open. He bolted up to a sitting position and began looking around frantically, trying to figure out where he was. Naruto soon discovered he was in the park, surrounded by his teammates and sensei, who all had cocky grins on their faces.

"Had a good nap, Naruto-san?" Kurenai asked, with a sly smirk plastered to her face. Naruto's face took on a deep shade of red with embarrassment. "You've been out of it for a good 15 minutes. Our little Hinata-chan was beginning to worry her little head off." The girl turned and glared at her sensei…but it might've been more convincing to Kurenai if Hinata wasn't blushing.

"G…gomen…." The boy mumbled, as he got up to his feet. "I…I don't know wh…what happened. B…but I'll try n…not to faint again…." Hearing the boy apologize for something he had very little control over had Kurenai feeling a little bad. So she sat back down, stretched her arms and legs, and let out a long sigh.

"No need to apologize, Naruto. You have very little, if any, control over what your body acts." Hearing this made Naruto feel a little better. "That said…" The woman continued. "Sarutobi gave us orders concerning the mission tomorrow. He said we need to be at the tower at 8:30am. You three need to pack the essentials, and get a good night's sleep. And since it's going to be a long trip, I suggest you all pack trail mix for energy and fill multiple canteens of water."

The three students nodded their heads, understanding their orders. "Good…" Kurenai said with a warm smile. Then, she suddenly remembered she had something for them. She reached back into her back pouch and pulled out three colorful slips of paper. "I came across these three coupons for Ichiraku's Ramen. And since I'm not a huge ramen fan, I'd thought you three would enjoy them more." Chouji and Hinata excitedly accepted the coupons, while Naruto smiled and hesitantly reached out and accepted the piece of paper. The three waved goodbye and raced off towards the famous ramen stand, while Kurenai chuckled to herself and headed towards her house.

_**AT ICHIRAKU'S**_

The three ran, and came to the well known ramen stand. Teuchi was wiping the front counter down with a damp rag, whistling aloud happily. In the kitchen, his daughter Ayame was sweeping the linoleum floors, humming a song she heard on the radio that afternoon. When the elderly man looked up and saw the kids running his way, he dropped his rag and waved at their arrival. "Hello!" He greeted happily. "Welcome! Please take a seat and decide what you would like!" Hinata smiled broadly and took a seat, as did her teammates.

"Hey there, old man!" Hinata never used any other greeting for any older man, except for her father. "We're going on our first C-ranked mission tomorrow morning. And Kurenai gave us these coupons, good for one large bowl of any ramen for free, for our excellent work this first month." Teuchi let out a hearty laugh as the over excited kunoichi went on and on about the things they've done. And her subjects never lasted more then a minute, when she'd change it to another subject relating to the one before it. But, she finally remembered why they were there in the first place, and pulled out her coupon. "Give me one large chicken ramen, old man."

Teuchi smirked and accepted the slip of paper. He then turned to the two new faces, grinned, and raised a eyebrow. "You most be Hinata's friends. She never stops talking about you two…. Especially you." He pointed at Naruto. Naruto blushed when he learned that he was talked about by the girl he so admired…. And Hinata herself seemed a little flushed, that Teuchi had the gall to bring that up around the boy. "Anyway…" The old man saw the dark look sent by Hinata, and decided to switch subjects as fast as possible. "What do you two want? She's a regular, so I already know she'd order the chicken flavored ramen…. But since you're new here, you need to tell me, so I'll know for future reference."

Chouji was the first to reply. "I'll have a large bowl of your beef ramen, please." Teuchi gave the order to his daughter, and turned to Naruto. But the blond was still deciding on what to order. There were so many flavors and combinations to choose from. But since he didn't want to keep Teuchi waiting, he went with Hinata's choice (Big surprise….).

"Umm…. I…I'll have what H…Hinata-chan is having…please…." He finished in a soft whisper. But the old man caught it, and told his daughter what they wanted. And once he gave Ayame the orders, he turned back to his three customers.

"Well, it's nice to see new faces at my stand. Let me try to figure you two out…." He stood up, and walked right in front of the two boys. He stopped right in front of Chouji, and struck a thinking man pose. "Let's see…. Pudgy, brown hair, weird spiral markings on your cheeks…. You most be Chouji Akimichi, right?"

'_Pudgy?'_ Chouji though, as he sent a raised eyebrow at the guilty looking Hyuuga girl. "Yes, I'm Chouji." The old man grinned, then turned to the last one.

"Oh. Blond spiky hair, whisker birthmarks, _beautiful _ocean blue eyes….." Hinata's cheeks took on a light pink glow when Teuchi quoted her, while she talked about Naruto the week before. "You must be _Naruto-kun_, right?" Teuchi finished, emphasizing and giving "Naruto-kun" a love-struck, girlish tone to it. 'Man…. Hinata is going to kill me for this…'

'You're SO dead for this, old man!' Hinata thought, as she used every ounce of self control NOT to activate her Byakugan and start pounding the man on the other side of the counter. Naruto was about to answer, when something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. He turned, and saw team 7 marching their way, looking a little beat up. Sasuke was leading them, still keeping his "Too cool to talk to you" demeanor, even with his clothes stained with dirt and grass stains. Sakura was right behind them, chatting happily, and blushing as she cuddled up on Sasuke's shoulder…who didn't seem to appreciate it that much. And last, but certainly not least, Kiba trudged behind them, with his big eared puppy Akamaru, lying atop his head.

Naruto was somewhat please to see his other friend Kiba walking their way, but the sight of the other two kids quickly stomped that fleeting feeling of joy. The blond looked down, as Teuchi came with all three orders. The smell of his chicken ramen as very pleasant, but the memories of the bullying and torment delivered from Sasuke and Sakura all those years at the academy turned to pleasant smell into scentless fog.

Hinata and Chouji were about to ask what was wrong, when they heard the harsh sound of Sasuke's voice interrupt them. "Looks like the crybaby got a new look!" Hearing his cruel voice made Chouji and Hinata tense up. "And look, he's on a day with his friends…. How sweet…." The other two turned and sent glares at Sasuke and Sakura, since Kiba was the least likely to join in in the teasing. Quite the contrary. He himself was glaring at the back of the Uchiha's head.

Then Sakura joined in. "I guess he was getting tired of looking like a complete loser, Sasuke-kun. Though, he kind of looks more pathetic, trying to loom tough." Her words were just as cold as Sasuke's, and Hinata was VERY tempted to take her down. But Kiba was already trying to help.

"Shut up, you two!" He growled, along with his loyal puppy. "We're not in the fucking academy anymore, so stop acting like immature brats." Both of his teammates ignored his demands, and decided to take a seat, right next to Naruto. Luckily, Kiba saw that move coming, and quickly took the seat next to Naruto, so neither Sasuke or Sakura could get up close and _too_ personally with his blond friend. "Hey dude…" The Inuzuka began, ignoring the irritated looks sent by his teammates. "Nice clothes. Much better then that orange piece of crap you used to wear."

Naruto smiled faintly as he took a bite of his chicken ramen. "Th…thanks, Kiba-san…." He replied in his normal whisper loud voice. "K…Kurenai-sensei took me sh…shopping the first n…night as sensei and st…student." While Kiba himself wasn't into shopping that much, he was jealous that his sensei actually treated him nicely. Kakashi was always late, never had perfectly straight answers to his or Sakura's questions, and always favored Sasuke's opinions more then his…. No matter the subject.

"And we're going on a _C-ranked _mission tomorrow morning." Chouji added, as he gulped down the beef broth left in his bowl. Chouji Akimichi had never been one who took delight in other people's unpleasant reactions…but when it came down to Sasuke and Sakura, he made a exception. While Kiba, not feeling any unfairness or bitterness towards his friends, congratulated them. Sasuke and Sakura, on the other hand, were outraged.

'What the fuck?!' The last Uchiha thought angrily. 'How does a failure like Uzumaki receive a C-ranked mission?! I'm an UCHIHA, yet I haven't even been offered a higher ranking assignment!' Sasuke's fists tightened at the thought, as Sakura decided to speak her mind.

"Must be a lame-ass mission, if they're going to send a orphaned crybaby on it." The reminder of his status as a orphan caused Naruto to look down, with his hands shaking, trying to let absolutely no tears or signs of sadness show. "I mean, seriously, how important could it be if they are willing to send Orphaned Uzumaki on it?" Hinata was RAPIDLY losing the will to restrain from attacking the pink haired bitch. Even Teuchi and Ayame stopped working, and took notice of the harsh thrashing the two bullies were delivering onto the poor blond boy. "What is it? Delivering flowers to another village? Something more stupid than that?"

Now, paying no attention to his meal, Naruto stared down. Nothing more. He didn't with to make eye contact with his friends, afraid that they'll see his expression. But Sasuke managed to predict his emotional state, and began playing off of it. "What? Baby needs mommy to make him feel better? Oops! I forgot…. You don't have one." And that done it. Naruto bolted out of his seat and ran into town, not knowing where he was going, because of the tears in his eyes. And quite frankly, he didn't care, just as long as it was far away from there.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata cried, trying to make her blond friend turn. But her cries landed on deaf ears. Naruto just ran away, as the cruel sound of Sasuke's and Sakura's laughs followed him. Now, with tears in HER eyes, and rage in her heart, she activated her Byakugan, and turned to the two cold-hearted shinobi. Even Chouji was aching for a fight, and was already out of his chair, with his hands made into fists. "Since the Hokage isn't around, you to assholes don't have anyone to save you…." Chakra was radiating of Hinata's hands, causing Sakura to panic. Sasuke was alert, but wouldn't show it. He merely dropped into a fighting position, and locked eyes with the kunoichi across from him.

"You think this is smart, Hyuuga?" He asked, as he popped his neck muscles. "It's three against two, and…." He stopped when Hinata smirked, and pointed behind him. Sakura, as anyone from the academy could've predicted, was huddled behind Sasuke, obviously afraid of both Hinata and Chouji. And Kiba, actually wanting to see his smart mouthing teammates get thrashed, was finishing up Naruto's unfinished ramen, as if watching a movie. 'Fuck…. I have a worthless tea…."

**POW!!!!!!!!!!!!**

The next thing he knew, he was sent flying backwards, with blood squirting from his nose. While he was distracted about his "Worthless team" Chouji ran forward, and delivered a devastating punch to the Uchiha's face. "Hell yeah!" Kiba cheered. "That's what I'm talking about!" Sasuke's body went tumbling across the ground, and smacked against a building. Sakura was horrified at watching her "True love" being punched in the face.

Sasuke grunted angrily, and got himself to his feet. He felt something warm and wet underneath his nose, and reached up to see what it was. When he discovered it was blood, he glared dangerously at the Akimichi. "Looks like the _FAT-ASS _grew a backbone…. Along with about 25lbs." A tick mark appeared on Chouji's temple when Sasuke mentioned his weight, and uncontrollably, began to march closer and closer towards the bleeding Uchiha. At the same time, Hinata had her eyes set on Sakura, and took much delight in seeing the pink haired girl's green, fear filled eyes make contact with her raged filled lavender eyes.

But then, a large puff of smoke erupted in between the two teams. The smoke caused Chouji to step back, and stopped Hinata from a revenge inspired march towards Sakura. When the smoke cleared, both Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei were revealed, with irritated looks directed at Sasuke and Sakura, than towards Chouji and Hinata. "Well…. That was quite interesting." Kakashi sighed, putting away his perverted reading material, and giving Sasuke a dead look. "I thought you and Sakura would've grown past bullying Naruto. I can see I was mistaken."

"Uchiha deserved what was coming…." Kakashi turned and saw Kiba, giving the last of his chicken broth to Akamaru. "I only wanted to say hi to Naruto, Hinata and Chouji. But those two…." Kakashi sighed heavily again, and raised his hand, signaling for Kiba to stop.

"We saw everything, Kiba…." He reassured, not taking his eyes off Sasuke. "No need to remind us of the rather…. Un-ninja like behavior shown by your two teammate." Hearing that sparked a sudden rage in Sasuke. But before he could even begin his angry rant, his sensei continued. "You interrupted a team's meal, just before their first C-ranked mission. You verbally attacked a member of their team, without probable or reasonable cause. Now tell me Sasuke, what part of that sound like what any other ninja would've done?" He didn't answer…. He merely wiped the blood from his nose, and turned his back to leave. Sakura followed close behind, after sending team 8 another snotty look.

Kurenai sighed, and turned to her team. "Now…. While I don't endorse or improve fighting while not on a mission, I don't see how you are in any of the wrong…. Except Chouji throwing the first punch…" She paused, and saw a guilty grin appearing on Chouji's face. "You did what was acceptable by ninja standards." She then turned towards Kiba, with a equally warm smile on her face. "And thanks you, Inuzuka-san…. For not only defending Naruto, but actually trying to keep him protected from your teammates." The boy blushed, and scratched the back of his head.

"It was nothing, Kurenai-sensei…" He chuckled. Akamaru yipped happily, agreeing with his master. "Even Akamaru thinks that Sasuke deserved to get hit…." Kakashi pulled out his book again, and glanced at his wild student.

"You should go and inform your teammates that there will be more intense training tomorrow. Tell them, that they are to show up at 6:30am…. You, on the other hand, should show up around 9:30am…. Just in case I…ahem…get lost again, and am forced to be extremely late." Kiba got the meaning of his sensei's orders, and snickered mischievously. As he and his ninja dog went off in Sasuke's and Sakura's direction, Kakashi looked Kurenai straight in the eyes. "Gomen…. For how my team acted…" Then, not even a second later, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Kurenai shrugged, and turned back to her team. "You two should go home. Naruto-san needs some space right now…. And don't worry, he'll show up tomorrow." Hinata wanted to say more, but she listened. They waved goodbye to Teuchi and Ayame, who were whispering to one another about what just took place a few minutes before. And when her students were out of sight, Kurenai groaned, and headed towards the nearest bar to get some sake in her.

**THE NEXT MORNING**

Kurenai waited for her students to show up at the designated meeting spot. And, completely out of the ordinary by Konohagukure standards, it was raining. Yesterday was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and only a gentle breeze. The temperature was still reasonably good, around 40 or 50 degrees. 'Hmm…. This sudden change in weather is odd…' Kurenai thought to herself. 'The weather yesterday was near perfect, and there wasn't any predictions of rain yesterday…. Yet here we are, experiencing the beginning of a potential storm. What in the world is going on?'

Her thoughts came to a stop when she saw all three of her students walking her way. They all wore cloaks, to protect them from the rain as they traveled. Then, Kurenai suddenly realized something…. She didn't bring one. 'Damn…. My own students are more prepared than I am….' She chuckled in her head, as the three neared the tower. 'What a good impression I am, huh?' "Good to see not all of us are unprepared!" Kurenai started, a little embarrassed. Naruto, who seemed to be feeling better today, reached into his large backpack. Kurenai's eyebrows arched when her shy student pulled out another cloak, and handed it to her.

"H…here you go, K…Kurenai-sensei…. I packed another, j…just in case Ch…Chouji-san or Hinata-chan forgot theirs…" The woman smiled warmly, bowed her head respectively, and accepted the cloak. She slipped it on, and was pleasantly surprised that only a little of her calf was still visible. It fitted surprisingly well, for "Supposing" being for Hinata or Chouji.

'What a sweet kid…' She thought, as she led her team up the steps of the tower. 'It pains me to still have to witness him being mistreated. He deserves so much for all the good he tries to do.' But her sympathetic thoughts stopped when she and her team arrived at the large oak door. Kurenai knocked twice, and heard Sarutobi's voice on the other side.

When they entered, they noticed that there was another man with him. He was a elderly man, but not so old as to be mistaken to be Sarutobi's age. He had short spiky gray hair, with a bushy goatee to match. He was wearing tattered brown clothes, signifying that he worked on farms and other physically demanding jobs. Glasses hung off his nose, and he hiccupped uncontrollable. The reason for that became clear when the team noticed the half empty sake bottle in the man's hand.

"So…." The man said in slurred words, most likely caused by the alcohol. "This is my shinobi team, huh? A bunch of brats, straight out of diapers, and a woman?" The arrogant make grunted, and took another swig of sake. Kurenai frowned at the "Woman" comment, just as Hinata frowned at the "Brat" comment directed at her, Naruto and Chouji. Sarutobi sighed, and invited Kurenai to take a seat.

"Kurenai, this is Tazuna, from Nami no Kuni. He's in charge of completing the bridge connecting Nami to the surrounding lands." Tazuna grunted, as he leaned against the wall and continued to drink his sake. "You can start your mission as soon as you all are ready." Kurenai looked at her team, then to Tazuna.

"If he doesn't have anything that needs done here…. We could leave immediately." Kurenai then walked right in front of Tazuna, and swiped the empty bottle from his hands. "Well, Tazuna-san? Do you have further business that needs to be finished here?" The old man grumbled something underneath his breath, then answered in a low tone.

"No…. we can leave now." Hinata was ecstatic.

"YEAH! Nami no Kuni, here comes team 8, of Konohagakure!"

To Be Continued……..

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I hope you all are ready for the action packed Nami no Kuni Saga, Mr. Alaska style! I'll be changing a few things as the story progresses, such as the weather and such. If anyone are having any trouble understanding the meanings of the Japanese terms I'm using, please bring it to my attention. I'll respond to your questions as soon as I get them. And I, again, accept anonymousness reviews. Please, lets see if we can break 200 reviews on the sixth chapter! WOOHOO! Who's with me?! And again, if anyone is interested, check out my other stories:

Evil is Only Skin Deep

Son of a Mercenary

Son of a Mercenary Pt2

Toad, the X-Man

What Ninjas Meet Mutants

The Two Demons of Konoha

Resurrection of a Angel

I sincerely hope to hear from you all soon, and hope you all stay loyal to the story. Please review! PEACE!


	7. Meeting the Oni Brothers

Rating: M

Pairing: Naruto/Hinata, and more as the story progresses.

Author's Notes: Hello again, everybody. I came down with a serious case of Shy Jinchuuriki fever, and find myself writing more on this story more often. Sorry if some of you are waiting for me to update some of my other stories, like The Two Demons of Konoha, Toad, the X-Man, etc. but I assure you, I'll get around to them eventually. If anyone has any requests or questions concerning my stories, please don't hesitate to bring them up. I hope you all enjoy this! PEACE!

Chapter 7: Meeting The Oni Brothers

It continued to rain as the team left the village of Konohagakure. Dark gray clouds rolled in and lightning stretched across the sky. The wind began to pick up, blowing leaves off from trees as Kurenai's team led Tazuna down a dirt path. It was uncomfortable conditions…. Only one good thing came out of the harsh weather. The rain that smacked against Tazuna's face snapped him out of his drunken daze. Now he was suffering, just like the rest of the team.

"Damn in! What's with this weather?" Kurenai growled to herself, pulling her hood in front of her face. Even though Kurenai was the leader, she wasn't leading the team. At point was Hinata, with her activating her Byakugan every once in a while. Kurenai followed right after. Behind her, Chouji and Naruto walked on either side of Tazuna. "You guys alright?" Kurenai asked her students and Tazuna.

Hinata, deactivating her Byakugan, turned back and answered. "The weather's just peachy…" The heiress groaned sarcastically. "Seriously. I know weather reporters aren't always 100% accurate, but this is ridiculous!" Kurenai smirked, and turned back to her boys as the Hyuuga went off on a angry rant.

"And you three?" Chouji looked up at his sensei, and gave her a half-ass smile. And she didn't blame her pudgy student for his expression. Cold rain and freezing winds isn't a good sign for being on your first mission…as Kakashi would say. But to Kurenai, it was simply bad weather. Chouji may have disliked the conditions, but he decided to fake a smile and gave her a false thumbs up.

"J…just great, K…Kurenai-sensei." He stuttered. The rain that was soaking into his clothes was beginning to freeze. His arms were cradling his chest as his entire body trembled.

'Damn it all….' Kurenai thought grimly. 'This first C-ranked mission is turning more into a punishment with every passing hour!' The woman then turned to her shyest student, and was pleasantly surprised at what she saw. He seem utterly unfazed. He wasn't shivering, wasn't holding himself to keep warm, nothing. The only signs of discomfort Naruto displayed was when he looked at his friends, who WERE freezing. Kurenai then let out a loud sigh, and looked down at her watch. 7:42pm. 'Wow…. Nearly 12 hours of continuous marching through this hellish weather. I'm surprised one of them haven't asked to stop…. And that I haven't decided to stop.'

Kurenai then began to look around, looking for suitable camping areas. The team continued to march for five minutes until they came across a large patch of thick trees. There were a few taller trees before them, blocking most of the wind for them. So there were a large percentage of their leaves still attached. "OK team, it's time to make camp." A sigh of relief escaped everyone's lips. Hinata and Chouji immediately broke off the trail, and plopped themselves underneath the tree. Tazuna followed closely behind, with Naruto and Kurenai bringing up the rear.

Once everybody was underneath the trees, Kurenai cleared her throat. "OK…. We'll camp here for tonight. We can only hope the weather will be better tomorrow. But first thing's first. We'll need to pitch some tents and get some food. Naruto, Tazuna and Chouji…." All three looked up. "You three can start pitching tents. I'll start gathering some wood that isn't waterlogged. And Hinata, you can go out and see if you can find us some rabbits." No one objected to the chores given to them. Naruto, Chouji and Tazuna began to take the tents out of their bags. Kurenai went into the woods for firewood. And Hinata went in the opposite direction, and activated her Byakugan.

Hinata pulled out a Kunai, and started to sneak stealthily through the forest floor. Lightning broke across the dark sky. But with her Byakugan, everything in front, and behind her was clear as day. And two minutes into her hunt, she spotted two good sized rabbits, close to three hundred feet in front of her. 'Gotcha…..' She thought, tightening her grasp on her Kunai.

**WITH KURENAI**

Kurenai walked lazily through the forest floor, looking for dry pieces of wood. Her mind was wandering back and forth from her team, to them mission, to the weather, and back again. So many things made the woman feel tense. Never in her life had the weather change so dramatically. Sunny one day, then dark clouds, lightning and rain the next. "Let it go, Kurenai!" She growled to herself, shaking her head. "It's just rain. Nothing more." But the stories of ninja team going off on conditions just like this still lingered in her head.

She then saw a reasonably dry tree branch laying on the ground, underneath a tree. It wasn't much, but it would do. She couldn't afford to let pieces of wood go to waste. So she reached down, grabbed the tree branch, and slid it up her sleeve. Lightning continued to snap across the dark gray clouds. "I just hope the weather is better tomorrow…." She groaned, picking up another branch up. About 15 minutes later, Kurenai gathered up a reasonable amount of firewood. "Better get back to the boys. The tents must be pitched. And Hinata must've caught some rabbits by now."

Still tired from the travel that day, the Jonin still kept her slow pace in returning to the camp. When she stumbled into camp, she was again, pleasantly surprised by what she saw. Naruto, Tazuna and Chouji were just now finishing up the tents. And as if on cue, Hinata was also returning for the forest, carrying five dead rabbits in her arms.

"Who's hungry?!" Hinata called out happily, as she dropped the bundle of rabbits on the ground. The three turned, and had mix expressions at the girl. Naruto, as anyone could've guessed, blushed and turned away from her. Chouji started to drool, and rubbed his hands together. Tazuna merely raised an eyebrow at how this Hyuuga, a girl, no less, acted.

"That a girl…" Kurenai chuckled to herself, rejoining the others. "You all did well. The tents are all pitched, and we have dinner, courtesy of Hinata-chan." Said kunoichi smiled broadly, and gave her a thumbs up. Kurenai stacked the firewood in the middle of a pit, and performed a quick set of hand signs. "Katon." A small fireball shot out of her mouth, and set the pile of branches ablaze. Turning to Hinata and the others, she noticed that all were shivering, except for Naruto. 'Lucky brat…. That damn fox must make his body warmer then a normal body is.' "While I skin the rabbits, why don't you four go and change out of those drenched things. Don't want to get hypothermia during the night, do we?"

There were three tents set up. One for Naruto and Chouji. One for Tazuna, and one for Hinata and Kurenai. Chouji, Hinata and Tazuna retreated to their assigned tents, while Naruto stayed to help. "I…I'll help you w…with the r…rabbits, Kurenai-sensei…" The Jinchuuriki volunteered. He removed his black trench coat , leaving only his fishnet shirt. He then folded his coat, and laid it closely to the fire to dry.

"Thanks, Naruto-kun." Kurenai said, with a warm smile on her face. She pulled out two Kunai, and tossed one to her student. "Aren't you cold?" She asked, handing a dead rabbit to Naruto. The boy locked gazes with his sensei, blushed, and looked down.

"Umm…. No, n…not really, Kurenai-sensei." He began in a low voice, as he began to skin the rabbit. "I do feel a l…little cold, but not d…dangerously cold……" He looked around, making sure his teammates or Tazuna weren't around. "I th…think it's the Kyuubi…." He whispered, in almost a hissing whisper. Kurenai smirked.

"Looks like that damned fur ball is useful for something, huh?" The Jonin let out a awkward chuckle when Naruto's sad expression didn't change. "Don't worry, Naruto-san…." Kurenai sighed, as she finished skinning a rabbit. "The others won't find out. The worst case scenario, they'll think you were just weird." This time, Kurenai couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh when Naruto looked as is he was going to panic. "Calm down…. They didn't even notice." The rain seemed to be lightening, and the wind began to settle down. Naruto was about to continue the conversation, when the others came out, wearing a change of clothes.

"Ohhhhh…. Much better!" Hinata sighed in delight, and sat next to Naruto. She was now wearing a black tank top, with a long sleeved fishnet shirt underneath. She was still wearing her damp pants, so she sat close to both Naruto and the fire (Wink, wink). She turned and looked at the boy to her side…. And her face went deep red at the sight of Naruto's well sculpted chest through his fishnet shirt. She turned, so that Naruto couldn't see her face. 'Oh my God! Look at him!' She screamed in her head, fanning herself with her hand.

Kurenai giggled as she witnessed her loud, abrupt student reduced to a nervous, love-struck girl. 'Hehe…. Look at her. Loud one second, blushing and giddy the next. Just like Anko acted when Kakashi gets too close.' After all the rabbits were skinned, Kurenai pulled out a kunai, and five extra sticks. She then began to slice all the bark off of them, leaving the tree branches smooth.

As Kurenai prepared the rabbits for cooking, Naruto looked at his other teammate. Chouji was now wearing a short sleeved black shirt, with baggy dark green cargo pants. Tazuna was basically wearing the same things, minus the large straw hat. "Katon: Blaze!" Naruto turned, and saw Kurenai breathe a decent amount of fire at the rabbits in the pit. Chouji sniffed the air, and immediately began to drool.

"Mmmmm!! That smells awesome, Kurenai-sensei!" He wiped the saliva off his chin, as he sat down on the other side of Naruto. Tazuna sat against a tree and kept to himself. Kurenai smiled and pulled out a stick with a rabbit on it. It was brown, and sizzling. But she didn't give it to Chouji. She thrust the stick into the ground, to allow it to cool off. Chouji's head slumped down, depressed. "Man…." His sensei heard his groan, and she turned towards him with a cocky grin.

"Sorry, Akimichi-san…. If you want to burn your mouth, and permanently loseyour sense of taste, you're more than welcome to come and do so." Chouji chuckled, a little embarrassed now.

"Gomen, Kurenai-sensei…" The woman nodded her head, and reached out, got another rabbit out of the fire, and did the same thing. The smell was overpowering. Kurenai, before roasting them, sprinkled some herbs she found while collecting firewood. Even Naruto was salivating at the smell of the meal. then, Naruto had an idea.

"Umm…. K…Kurenai-sensei?" Kurenai turned from fanning the sizzling rabbits, and looked at her blond student with curiosity. The boy got nervous, and began to twiddle his two index fingers. "Umm…. I th…think I might have an idea for cooling off th…the rabbits…. If it's OK…" His voice went to a whisper. Curious as to _how _her student will perform this duty, Kurenai nodded her head, allowing him to proceed. Naruto took a deep breath, and squatted in front of the scolding animals. He performed a couple hand signs, and grunted. "Fuuton: Gusting Winds!" A small, but powerful burst of wind came from Naruto's hands. He managed to hold a constant stream of wind for a good five seconds before quitting. Kurenai's, along with Hinata's and Chouji's eyebrows were arched at the display.

Blinking a few times, Kurenai felt one of the rabbits, to see how hot it was after Naruto's wind Jutsu. It was no longer scolding, or blistering hot. Now, it was a comfortably for rabbit, warm enough to eat, but not hot enough to burn someone's mouth. "Very impressive, Naruto-san!" Kurenai said, approvingly. "That was really an impressive display of chakra control. I'm glad to see all that training made that Jutsu more then a fighting technique." Naruto's cheeks went crimson at Kurenai's warm words.

"Th…thank you, Kurenai-sensei…" The Jonin handed him two rabbits. At first, he was confused, then he locked eyes with his sensei. Kurenai grinned, and darted her eyes to someone behind him. Naruto turned, and figured out that she was darting at Hinata, who had a bewildered look on her face. She seemed as if she was in a daze, staring into space. Naruto blushed again, and sat right next to her. "H…Hinata-chan?"

The sound of Naruto's voice snapped Hinata out of her daze. She shook herself, and noticed that the boy she _liked _was sitting right next to her. Her face erupted with heat, and she made eye contact with Naruto. "Oh! Th…thank you, Naruto-kun." Hinata snatched the warm rabbit from his hands, and nodded respectably. Seeing this, Kurenai giggled as she handed Chouji and Tazuna their meals.

Chouji accepted the rabbit with a bow, and took a good sized bite out of it. His eyes popped open, as if he hadn't had food in a long while. "Wow! This is delicious, Kurenai-sensei!" He cried, receiving a chuckle from his teammates and sensei. "Those herbs you put on it really added some flavor. Thanks!" Hinata raised an eyebrow, and crossed her arms across her chest.

"I _caught_ the furry things…" She grumbled in a childish way. "All Kurenai-sensei did was sprinkle herbs on them, while picking up _wood_! I had to actually go out and hunt everyone of them down." She then pretended to pout, and turned away from her larger teammate. Chouji, Naruto, and Kurenai chuckled, but the whole time, their guest was silent. Tazuna simply munched down on his rabbit, and kept to himself. Finally, Chouji decided to try to break the ice.

"So, Tazuna…." He groaned, as he got up to his feet. "You've been really quiet ever since this mission began. Is there some….."

"CHOUJI!! GET DOWN!!" Hinata cried. With lightning fast speed, the kunoichi managed to jump to her feet, and tackled Chouji to the ground. But not even a quarter of a second later, a barrage of Shuriken embedded themselves in the tree that was behind Chouji.

"SCATTER!" Kurenai ordered, without missing a beat. She dashed towards Tazuna, grabbed him, and leapt into the trees, along with her students. Naruto was startled, and instinctively followed directly behind Kurenai. Hinata and Chouji on the other hand actually scattered from the group. Like Naruto, the other two were startled by the attack, and ran in different directions.

Kurenai, Tazuna and Naruto leapt from tree to tree with lightning speed. "We need to get to an open area!" Kurenai growled as she landed behind a tree to catch her breath. "The enemy won't be able to hide if we're in a clearing." Naruto was winded from the sudden burst of energy he was forced to use. He bent over, bent his legs, and propped himself up with his hands to take large gasps of air. Sweat mixed with rain, and his adrenaline was going haywire. But after a few deep breaths, Naruto glanced around realized something.

"K…Kurenai-sensei! H…Hinata-chan and Chouji-san are st…still back there!" It was true. The ambush had caused the team to disperse. Kurenai bit her bottom lip in anger. Since it was HER who told them to "SCATTER" and not to follow her.

'Damn……..' Kurenai thought bitterly, looking around franticly. 'This is bad!' "Naruto! You take Tazuna and head into the forest. After a mile or two, hide somewhere and don't come out until I say so! I'll go and get Hinata and Ch….."

Suddenly, a faint scream was heard in the distance. Then the three heard Chouji cry out Hinata's name. "No……" Kurenai, Naruto and Tazuna breathed in unison. "NARUTO! RUN!" Kurenai barked, charging in the direction of the screams. Naruto's legs were shaking. Not from the freezing rain or chilling wind, but of fear for his friends. But he swallowed hard, grabbed Tazuna by the wrist and lead him in the opposite direction.

As the blond boy led him deeper into the forest, Tazuna kept looking down, not wanting to make eye contact. 'This is all my fault……'

**WITH KURENAI**

The Jonin dashed through the trees with impressive speeds, with a kunai in each hand. 'Please be OK, you two….' Kurenai leapt from a large tree, and landed in their original camp site. The fire was out, smoldering in the pit. Adrenaline was fueling Kurenai's actions. The normally calm Jonin was circling around franticly, listening for any other sound from her two students. Seconds seemed like minutes, as the kunoichi heard no more signs of life around.

"Ooooooh……. Look at what we have here, brother. Another toy." The unfamiliar voice caused Kurenai to rotate around in the blink of an eye. Atop a large tree branch stood two figures, one holding an unconscious Hinata and Chouji. They were both from the village hidden in the mist. One wore a black cloak, draping down to his knees. Underneath that, he wore bandages from his hips up to his neck. On his left hand, there was a large steel glove, with sharpened claws on his fingers. On his face was a gas mask of some sort, and a hidden mist headband. The man beside him was similar with appearance. He wore brown vest over a brown camouflage shirt. On his right hand was a similar steel gantlet as the first man. He also had the same mask, and a hidden mist headband. Long bushy brown hair went down both men's neck, and their dark beady eyes peered down at the solo kunoichi. These were the Oni Brothers of Kirigakure, Missing-nin.

"Looks like we have ourselves a JONIN here!" Gozu, the eldest brother chuckled, pressing his poison soaked claws against the unconscious Hinata's neck. "It sure would be a shame to see her pretty student get killed, wouldn't it Meizu?"

Meizu, the younger brother laughed manically, also pressing poison drenched claws against Chouji's neck. "Oh for sure, Gozu. Look at her pretty face. But if a Hyuuga was taken down that easily, then what good would she be if she was a ninja? I say we kill her, AND her plump little friend." Kurenai's eyes widened.

"What are ninjas from Kirigakure doing in Konohagakure territory?!" She shouted heatedly. "What business do you have here, and what possessed you to attack my team?!" Gozu, wanting to have a little more fun, rested the razor sharp points of his claws on Hinata's windpipe.

"You are in no position to be demanding answers, kunoichi. Me and my brother have your precious students, and control whether they live or die. So I would be sure to shut the fuck up if I were you." Kurenai grinded her teeth, seeing that the sadistic men were using her students as human shields. "But don't worry, girlie. If you be a good little sensei, me and Meizu MIGHT kill you and your students quickly and painlessly. Now, why don't you….."

"**FUUTON: GUSTING WINDS!!!!!!!" **All of a sudden, a large gust of wind came up from behind the Oni Brothers. The force of the wind was so powerful, it sent both Gozu and Meizu forward, resulting in both of them losing their grips on their captives. Kurenai, instinctively, leapt forward and caught Hinata's and Chouji's unconscious bodies. Gozu and Meizu slammed face first against two large trees, and slid to the ground in pain. And to Kurenai's surprise, it was her shyest of students who've came to the rescue. Naruto was standing on the branch directly behind the brothers, and performed the wind jutsu from earlier…only with a lot more chakra.

"Naruto! Take Hinata and Chouji! I'll take care of Gozu and Meizu!" But when she looked at Naruto, he seemed different. His canines were showing, almost making him resemble an Inuzuka. His whisker birthmarks, which were normally just six thin lines, were now thick and dark streaks. And more noticeably, his normal ocean blue eyes were now bloody crimson red, with his pupils now slits…like a fox's. 'Oh no…'

"YOU LOUSY BRAT!!!!!" Before Kurenai could hand off her unconscious students to Naruto, a long chain, made out of shuriken came hurling in both Naruto's and Kurenai's direction. Luckily, even with two unconscious Gennins on her shoulder, Kurenai and Naruto managed to dodge the razor sharp chain. "Where is the bridge builder?!" Gozu demanded, while he retracted his chain back into his gantlet. At the same time, Meizu was charging directly at Kurenai, with his poison soaked claws aimed at her stomach.

Thinking quickly, Naruto hands went into a fury of hand signs. **"Kage Bushin No Jutsu!!!!" **Red chakra swirled around his hands as all of a sudden, black smoke erupted everywhere.

Not being the least bit intimidated, Meizu continued his charge. "HA! Cute trick, you little prick! But it'll take more than a little smoke trick to take down the Oni Brothers!" Meizu entered the thick smoke…and was IMMEDIATELY sent flying backwards, flying past his brother, and SLAMMING against a tree with dangerous force, killing him instantly. The impact was strong enough to leave a indent in the tree Meizu smacked against. And as for his older brother…he was struck speechless by what he saw neck.

When the smoke cleared, five clones of Naruto were revealed. But they weren't just clones. Each was radiating red chakra, and had drool rolling down the corners of their mouths. They all had jagged claws protruding from their finger tips, and bore their enlarged canines at him. Their blond, damp hair, mixed with the rain and lighting in the background gave them menacing and demonic looks. So much that Gozu began backing away in mortal fear.

"Wh…what IS that thing?!" After the fifth step backwards, Naruto and his clones disappeared in five red blurs. "Where the fuck did that thing go?!" Gozu was now literally shaking like a leaf. He spun around franticly, not knowing where the feral kid and his clones went.

_**RIPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

All of a sudden, his left arm was torn from his torso. The only living Oni Brother howled in pain, as blood squirted from his arm socket.

_**RIPPPP!!!!!!!! RIPPPP!!!!! RIPPPP!!!!!!!**_

Then, his right arm was torn of, along with both of his legs. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!" Crying bloody murder, the legless and armless torso twitched on the ground, in a world of pain not experienced by any man before him.

Seeing all of this, Kurenai forgot to breathe a couple of times.

When all five appeared again, it was truly a sickening and frightening sight. All four clones hand an arm or an leg in it's mouth, with their fangs digging deep into the flesh and bone. All four clones were also in s crouching position, such like a dog when commanded to sit. The original Naruto was right in front of the torso, with his blood red eyes aiming at the man.

Loosing blood fast, Gozu stopped screaming, even when the demon possessed Gennin lifted him into the air with one hand, and pulled back his other arm, ready to strike him dead. "Wh…what a…are y…you….?" Said the dying Gozu, rapidly losing his strength due to blood lose. And right before Naruto's claws came crashing THROUGH Gozu's face, Naruto answered him in a deep, dark, possessed voice.

"_**I'm Kyuubi no Kitsune, you pathetic human…." **_

**THE NEXT MORNING**

Naruto awoke with his head arching. He lied in his tent, rubbing temples to get his skull splitting headache to go away. "Wh…what happened…?" He asked out loud, weakly. No answer. Then he remembered what was happening last night, and his eyes snapped open. "KURENAI-SENSEI!" He jolted up into a sitting position, reaching for his kunai holster. But to his shock, both his kunai and shuriken holster was not attached to his thighs. He was about to panic, when Kurenai entered the tent.

"Don't worry, Naruto-san…." Her voice was somewhat soothing to Naruto. "Those Missing-nin are both dead…. They knocked you and Tazuna out after I left you to go find Hinata-chan and Chouji-san." Remembering his teammates, he tried to get up. "They're alright, Naruto-san. I managed to rescue them before the Oni Brothers could do anything."

Relieved, Naruto fell back into a lying position. "Now sleep. You put up a good fight when Gozu and Meizu ambushed you and Tazuna, so you must still be tired." Naruto raised a eyebrow when he was told this. He didn't remember fighting back. "You might not remember, but you actually managed to fight them off when they went after you and Tazuna." Kurenai lied. "I'll tell you more later. I should go check on Hinata-chan and Chouji-san."

The Jonin left the tent, where only Tazuna was awake. Kurenai thought that her other two unconscious students should share her tent, just in case Naruto went into another "Kyuubi Episode". But she was far more focused on what Gozu shouted the night before.

"_Where is the bridge builder?!"_

To Kurenai, that brought into question to what the _true _mission was about. Tazuna was leaning against a tree, when Kurenai came up, grabbed him by the collar, and slammed him against the tree. "OK, you mother fucking drunk…." Venom dripped off her every word. "What are you really up to? One of the Oni Brothers demanded where _**YOU **_were. So that means that you're more important than what you say. Spill it." Her glare would've been frightening to even to the Kyuubi no Kitsune itself. The bridge builder looked down in remorse, and spilled.

"My country is very poor. I couldn't afford a higher ranked mission, so I made it a low level escort mission." Since he wasn't answering Kurenai's question fast enough, Kurenai reached into her holster, pulled out a kunai, and imbedded it in the tree, a few millimeters from Tazuna's face…. So he answered the actual question.

"I'm wanted by a very dangerous man, who will stop at nothing to kill me. I'm responsible of completing the bridge connecting Nami to our neighboring country. If I don't complete the bridge, my country will eventually die!"

"SO YOU HAVE A GENNIN TEAM GO UP AGAINST HIGH LEVEL CHUNNINS?!?!?!?!" Kurenai couldn't control her anger anymore. She through the bridge builder to then ground in rage. "I almost lost two of my team last night, you old drunk! This was supposed to be a low C-ranked mission! Not an A-ranked one! Do you know how much danger my team is in, just by being AROUND you?!" The fuming woman was rapidly losing the control keeping her from killing the man right there on the spot. So she back off, and leaned against a tree, massaging her temples. "We're heading back to Konoha immediately after my team is awake. This mission is too dangerous for….."

"No, Kurenai-sensei….." Hearing Hinata's voice, Kurenai turned to see her loud-mouthed kunoichi standing directly behind her. "We should complete this mission."

To Be Continued……

CLIFFHANGER NO JUTSU!!!!!!! HAHA! I'm back! So sorry for the ass wait. I needed to get my school work done, or I would've pulled four Fs! And I just couldn't balance my work and writing well. But I'm back! Sorry for making Hinata and Chouji appear weak. But I'll explain more next time. Hope you all like this update. Please leave me some nice reviews, and check out Deviant Art! I started drawing and I'll bet you all would like it! PEACE!


	8. Notice

_**NOTICE:**_

Hello everyone! It's me, Mr. Alaska, AKA Ronald Hartman. I decided to take a little break from writing. I know, you all have been waiting for an update for a while. And I'm sorry. But I've been diagnosed with a serious case of Writer's Block, one of the worst cases to date in human history. But I want to assure you that I'm not quitting FF, in case that was what a lot of you were thinking. I'll just take a week off from writing, just to get my head together and think up some more material for ALL of my stories. And also, on a side note, I really am sick, I have a small flu. But I'll live. So, please, if you are desperately waiting for an update, you only have one more week of waiting before I'm back on my saddle. And to pass the time, please check out my not so popular stories, like When Ninjas Meet Mutants, Out of the Smokey Ruins, Annoying Friend or Annoying Foe, To Release a Caged Bird, Taking Chances, Son of a Mercenary Part II, Resurrection of an Angel, and Valentines Day Miracles. I would really appreciate it if all of my loyal readers and reviewers check them out as I get my act together. Again, I'm sorry I'm making you all wait so long. If anyone has any suggestions for any of my stories, don't hesitate to tell me. Hope to hear from you all soon.

Sincerely, Mr. Alaska, AKA Ronald Clay Hartman


	9. Meeting Zabuza Momochi

Rating: M

Pairing: NaruHina, and more as the story progresses.

Author's Notes: YO! I'm BACK! So sorry for the long wait again. I've been having a lot of cases of the dreaded Writer's Block. And because this story's chapters have more than four thousand words in it, I had to think about how to put more detail into my stuff. But I digress. I've started a couple of new stories. One is another Naruto/Deadpool crossover, called Out of the Smoky Ruins. Also, I started a NaruHina story called To Release a Caged Bird. Please check them out after reading this installment of The Shy Jinchuuriki. And if you remember the manga or anime, you know who is coming up next ( Snickers Evilly ). ZABUZA MOMOCHI! So sit back, relax, and enjoy this update. PEACE!

Chapter 9: Meeting Zabuza Momochi

Kurenai and Tazuna looked at Hinata with mixed expressions. Kurenai raised an eyebrow, and placed her hands on her hips. Tazuna's mouth hung open and stared in disbelief at the young kunoichi. "We have to complete this mission, Kurenai-sensei." The Hyuuga girl repeated, sounding very stern and determined. "We were assigned to deliver Tazuna to Nami, and that is exactly what we are going to do." Her sensei shock her head and let out a tired sigh.

"Hinata, you can't be serious..." Hinata frowned at how her sensei as she groaned her response. "This started off as a low level C-ranked mission. There was a lot of consideration just for THAT. What makes you think I would allow my Gennin team to proceed on a B or A-ranked mission?" Hinata rolled her eyes, and leaned against a tree. "This is a serious matter, Hinata. Assassins of higher ranking will be attacking us if we continue with this mission. And I'm not prepared to risk my team's safety and well being so quickly."

"Come on, sensei. We can handle this." The Hyuuga heiress reassured in a pleading tone. "The only reason those two jerks caught me and Chouji was because they caught us off guard. Now that we know we are being targeted, we can be more prepared." The Jonin sighed as her tomboyish student started making a list of what she and her teammates would do. "I could keep my Byakugan activated more often. Naruto-kun could send some of his clones ahead to scout out the area ahead of us. Come on, Kurenai-sensei. We can do this."

Kurenai massaged her temples in annoyance. What her loud-mouthed student was asking her to allow mere Gennins to take on a mission meant for high leveled ANBU. They barely could handle two Chunnin level ninjas. So what would promote Hinata to think that the team could handle more than that? But when Kurenai was about to refuse her again, another voice interrupted her response.

"I…I agree, K…Kurenai-sensei…" Everyone turned to see both Naruto and Chouji walking towards them. A nervous blush was plastered on his face, and his eyes stayed to the ground. Chouji was, as you would've guessed, eating a bag of barbeque potato chips. Fidgeting with his index fingers, the shy boy continued in a quiet voice. "I…umm…think we should c…continue on w…with the mission."

Kurenai and Tazuna stared in disbelief at what they were hearing. The shyest Gennin in the village of Konohagakure was backing Hinata up in going on an A-ranked mission. "Yeah ( Belch! ) Kurenai-sensei.." Chouji rudely agreed, letting out a loud belch, opening up yet another bag of chips. "Now that we know how dangerous this damn mission is, we can be ready. The only reason they got us was because we thought we wouldn't have to be worried about being attacked. But now that we know, we can be more prepared."

The Jonin let out a big puff of air, and leaned against a tree to think. She thought about the predicament they were in, and looked at their skills. Hinata had the infamous Byakugan eyes. That in itself was a good advantage. Plus, she knew a good amount of Jyuuken, since she was personally trained by her father. She was passable in shuriken and kunai throwing. While she didn't have perfect aim like Gai's student Tenten, she was reasonably good.

Then she looked at Chouji. He had a few more flaws than Hinata. He wasn't as coordinated as Hinata or Naruto, but his physical abilities were surprisingly high. Despite his chubby exterior, his physical strength was well developed for a Gennin. And that's without considering Chouji's Nikudan Sensha ( Human Boulder ). While Kurenai wouldn't send Chouji out to fight immediately, he was a good balance in the team in the case of a fight.

Finally, Kurenai looked at Naruto. She had a lot to consider when thinking about him. She wasn't sure how'd he would react if he and the team actually engaged in combat with an enemy. Sure, he killed the Oni brothers, but technically, Kyuubi no Kitsune was in control. But she decided to forget about that, and look at what he had to offer. His Taijutsu wasn't yet to her standards, but he made up for that for knowing the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. For a mere Gennin to know a Jonin level jutsu was quite impressive. And during a confrontation, he would be essential for both attacking the enemy, and causing a distraction if needed.

Combined with her mastery of high leveled Genjutsus, Kurenai took a deep breath and came to a decision. "If we want to make it to Nami, we'll have to move quick." She sighed, looking down the path in front of them. "If there are anymore assassins, we'll have to stay alert. Hinata…" The Hyuuga looked up with a triumphant smirk. "You'll take point with me. Tazuna will be behind us, with Naruto and Chouji bring up the rear. I want you to activate your Byakugan EVERY ten minutes. Scan ALL around us as far as you can, ensuring there is no one in you range of sight."

"YEAH! KICKASS!" Hinata shouted, in her usual tomboyish way. And, without thinking, she hugs Naruto and starts to jump up and down excitedly. Naruto's face went into the darkest shade of red Kurenai ever saw…or even thought possible. Chouji nearly choked on his chips at the sight of Hinata realizing what she was doing. She gasped in shock when all of a sudden, Naruto's body folded backwards and toppled down. And even Kurenai couldn't hold back a snicker when Chouji and Tazuna busted out laughing.

But it was short-lived. Kurenai knew how much danger they were in if they didn't start moving soon. "Come on…" She ordered, in a more serious voice. The women reached down and placed her arms underneath Naruto's head and legs…and handed his unconscious body over to Hinata. "The ocean is at least five hours away if we move now. We should be in Nami by that time." Hinata blushed as Naruto's unconscious head rolled over, and rested on her shoulders.

But…she didn't complain, and followed behind her evil/nice sensei. 'Anko will LOVE this story…' Kurenai thought devilishly, trying her hardest not to laugh at what she did to her student.

( FIVE HOURS LATER )

Five hours has passed since team 8 decided to continue on with the mission. Naruto awoke 15 minutes after the incident, and couldn't remember why. Kurenai saved Hinata from further embarrassment, and told him that he was more tired than he though, and fell asleep again. When Hinata shot both Chouji and Tazuna a dark glare, the two hesitantly agreed with the lie (Smart move). So, after that was dealt with, the team continued on. And to their relief, they didn't run into anymore assassins sent by Gato. They arrived at a small port, and had a boat driver take them across the ocean into Nami no Kuni.

Fog rolled in suddenly. So thick that if you were in it, the only things you would see was the people in your boat, and nothing else. Team 8 and Tazuna took a seat in the back of the boat, when Kurenai broke the silence. "So…. Why did you need to complete the bridge? And give me details this time." Tazuna looked at the Jonin, and let out a heavy sigh. The three Gennins listened intently as Tazuna explained why they were there in the first place.

"In my homeland…there's a man by the name of Gato." Kurenai recognized the name. "Gato is a soulless, cheating, blood-thirsty businessman who took control over Nami. No one knows where he came from. He just appeared in Nami one day, with a massive army of mercenaries, thugs, and high leveled missing ninjas." Naruto, Hinata, and Chouji swallowed in nervousness at the description of Gato. When all four shinobi nodded for Tazuna to continue, the old man removed his straw hat, and continued. "He now rules Nami no Kuni as a dictating tyrant. His mercenaries and thugs run the streets, enforcing his "laws" to the fullest extent. Gato's men kill out of boredom, and they never get in trouble."

Kurenai and the others looked at one another, then looked at Tazuna again. "Look…. I'm really sorry I had to trick a Gennin team to help me." The bridge builder apologized. "Nami no Kuni needs me and my men to complete the bridge separating our lands." He bowed his head. "My people need me…. If me and my men complete the bridge, we might be able to get the help we need. We might be able to get jobs in your land, and earn enough money to save Nami no Kuni from Gato's tyranny. My land is dying, and I am the only one that can save it…." Then, when Tazuna was about to go on, he pointed behind them. The ninja team looked, and saw it. The great bridge Tazuna and his men were working on. The incomplete bridge stretched a little more than half way across the water below.

But as the team passed underneath the bridge, they were unaware that they were being watched. Hidden behind the white fog stood a tall, gray skinned man, wearing a pair of gray camouflage pants. On his torso, he wore nothing. His hard, muscular chest was exposed to the cool air. On his back, there was a LARGE sword, standing nearly eight feet long. Around his head he wore a long gray camouflage scarf. His face was shielded by a black shinobi mask, similar to the one Kakashi Hatake. And his black spiky hair was held up by his mist village headband. The mysterious man watched the five, figuring out who they were.

"Hmm…. We have a Hyuuga, huh?" He spoke to himself, in a dark, creepy voice. An evil smirk appeared underneath his mask. "Looks like this won't be as boring as I thought. Those damned eyes and fighting style of theirs might prove to be a problem." He turned his attention to the chubby boy in the boat, and recognized those swirls on his cheek. "And a Akimichi. The jumbo sized brawlers of Konoha." But his smug attitude completely changed when he saw Naruto Uzumaki. The whisker birthmarks and spiky blond hair caused the assassin's eyes to snap open. "Well, well, well…. This is a surprise. The infamous Jinchuuriki of Konohagakure, Naruto Uzumaki." He sat down, allowing his legs to dangle from the edge. Then, he saw their sensei. "And, the beautiful crimson eyed Genjutsu specialist of the leaves, Kurenai Yuuhi."

He stretched his arms and legs, before getting up. "Looks like this might prove to be a challenge… for once." The masked man started to perform hand signs, and finished by disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Back with the team, Tazuna was just finishing up by mentioning his daughter and his grandson. He pulled a dirty trick by mentioning how depressed his daughter would be if he died trying to complete the bridge. And how heart broken his grandson would be if his granddad, his only other living relative died. Team 8 looked down, knowing what the old man was doing, but still imagining what he said. So, the team nodded their head, and continued on with the mission.

After about 15 more minutes of rowing, the boat finally arrived at the other side of the lake (P.S. Nami is a lake that is connected to the ocean. Just in case anyone was wondering). The boat driver accepted Kurenai's money, and wished them the best of luck. Hinata activated her Byakugan, and scanned the immediate area around them. She saw a few rabbits, a couple of foxes and wolfs. Mostly wildlife. "All clear." Hinata announced, deactivating her All Seeing Eyes.

The fog around them seemed to be getting thicker as they continued towards Nami no Kuni. This concerned Naruto. "U… umm, T…Tazuna-san?" The bridge builder looked down at the shy boy. "Umm… I…is this n…normal? Th…this amount of f…fog?" Naruto's teammates looked at him funny, but Tazuna raised a eyebrow at the question. He looked around, and scratched the back of his neck.

"Actually, this is strange." He answered. "I mean, Nami no Kuni is known for it's foggy days. But, only in the right _seasons_." Kurenai's eyes popped open at the statement. "While we are close to when we get fog here, it's still at least a whole month until it gets bad. Hmm… maybe it is only…."

"STOP." Tazuna was interrupted by Kurenai. Her voice had both a hint of panic and alertness. Her team and Tazuna didn't even question her, and stopped dead in their tracks. Her red eyes narrowed as she scanned around them. 'No….' Her hands then went into a blur as she started performing hand signs. "Release!" Chakra swirled around her body, and exploded outward. The instant the chakra dispirited into the fog, the fog dissipated. It began to clear up revealing more and more land.

This wasn't regular fog… and Kurenai knew it.

"GET DOWN!" Kurenai cried at the top of her lungs. The Jonin dived forward, tackling her team and Tazuna. And just in time, too. From out of nowhere, a large sword came spinning out of the dissolving fog, heading straight towards the team. The sword came so close to striking the ninja team, that when Kurenai dived, the massive blade trimmed off a full inch off her hair. As Kurenai and her team landed on the ground, the large sword imbedded itself four inches into a nearby tree.

Then, as the team rushed to their feet, they heard a large puff of smoke coming from behind them. Kurenai, Hinata, Chouji and Naruto all reached for their kunai, and surrounded Tazuna.

Standing atop of the imbedded sword stood a tall, muscular man. His back was turned to the team, but she soulless, light brown eyes stayed glued on the six behind them. The wind began to pick up, sending his scarf fluttering in the same direction. "Well…. It seems that the famous Genjutsu master of Konohagakure is getting somewhat rusty." The mystery man chuckled, hopping off the massive sword. "But don't worry…. I tend to go eye on a pretty woman now and again." With one hand, the mist ninja yanked his sword out of the tree, and rammed it into the ground next to him.

Kurenai glared at the man. "Zabuza Momochi…. You must be one of Gato's lap dogs, huh?" Zabuza Momochi's name was well known in almost every village. Known as the "Demon Hidden in the Mist" his way of killing and mastery of Suiton (Water Jutsu) made him famous. Zabuza laughed, and started to do exercise stretches.

"In a way, Yuuhi…" Kurenai's eyes, along with everyone else's eyes snapped open when they heard Zabuza mention their sensei's last name. "That's right, I know your name. your reputation as a Genjutsu master perceives you. I may work for him, but I'm no lapdog. The only reason I didn't kill him is because he offered me the right amount of money." He pulled his sword out of the ground, and dropped into his signature fighting stance.

He locked eyes with Kurenai, and sighed. "Today is your lucky day. What I'm going to offer you is a once in a lifetime offer. If you four leave, and give me the old man, I won't kill you or your little Gennins. But if you stay… I'll have to kill all of you." Then, there were silence. Small drops of wind fell from the sky, as the wind began to blow stronger. Kurenai narrowed her eyes, and tightened her grip around her kunai. Naruto, Hinata and Chouji also stood their ground, with Naruto ready to perform his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Taking their silence as a refusal, Zabuza sighed. "What a shame…. You had a pretty face, too." Then, instantly, Zabuza's body turned into water, and splashed to the ground. But Naruto was prepared. Before Kurenai had a chance to give any orders, Naruto finished the required hand signs.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He cried, as multiple puffs of smoke appeared all around them. When the smoke cleared, there were a grand total of 30 Naruto clones surrounding them, all with a kunai in each hand. Kurenai didn't shout at him…. Because that was exactly what she was about to order him to do. Kurenai turned, and looked and Hinata. The Hyuuga heiress smirked, and started to perform her own hand signs.

"Byakugan!" The blood vessels around Hinata's eyes sprouted bulged outward, and her colorless pupils expanded. Her Byakugan scanned all around them, scanning for any source of chakra. After a few seconds, she spotted Zabuza, standing on the water in a nearby lake. He was performing hand signs, when two more water clones of him morphed out of the water. "Kurenai-sensei! Zabuza just created two water clones!"

'Thank God we have a Hyuuga.' Kurenai thought. "OK, Hinata. Keep an eye on him." She then looked at Chouji. "Chouji, I want you and 15 of Naruto's clones to take Tazuna somewhere safe, but somewhere within hearing distance. If you see or sense someone else coming, yell." Chouji nodded his head. He took Tazuna's hand, and led him and the 15 clones off into the forest.

"Here they come, sensei." Hinata warned, ready to fling her kunai at the charging clones. Zabuza and his two clones charged forward, with their swords held high.

'Something's up… This isn't his fighting style….' Kurenai thought, putting her kunai back into her holster. Chakra started to swirl around Kurenai's hands, as she stared to perform hand signs. "Katon: Dragon's Fury!" a second later, dark red fire erupted from the Jonin's mouth, and hurled straight at the charging three. The fire struck the two water clones, but the real Zabuza used his massive sword as a shield, protecting himself from the scorching inferno. When the attack subsided, the assassin swung around his sword, and send a barrage of shuriken and kunai at the leaf shinobi. Naruto, Hinata and Kurenai leapt out of the way, dodging all of the thrown projectiles. But six of the 15 clones weren't so lucky.

Zabuza smirked, pulled his sword out of the ground, and charged the ninjas again. 'Hmm…. The blond brat knows Kage Bunshin, huh? Impressive.' Zabuza, using more impressive speed, dashed forward. All nine of Naruto's clones charged forward to intercept the missing mist ninja. But Zabuza had more brute strength than you would think. Using his left arm, he swung across him and sent all nine of the clones skidding across the ground, disappearing as the slid. "Impressive trick, kid! But you'll need more than that if you want to slow me down!"

Hinata growled, and started to perform hands signs. "Suiton: Water Pistol!" Hinata carried a large canteen of water with her if she needed to perform Suiton. Water slithered out of the open canteen, and formed a football sized mass of chakra and water. When the mist assassin got close enough, Hinata shot the compact water at him, striking him in the shoulder.

But to the team's dismay, this Zabuza fell backwards and turned into water. 'What? He was a clone too?' Kurenai shouted in her head. "Hinata! Activate your Byakugan!" But it was too late. In a puff of smoke, Zabuza appeared behind Naruto and Hinata, with his blade resting on their throats. Kurenai's eyes widened in terror at the sight of her students, with the infamous Zabuza Momochi holding them hostage. 'DAMN IT!' "Let them go, Momochi!" Kurenai demanded. "They're just children!"

A cold, careless chuckle escaped Zabuza's bandaged mouth. "_Children_ wouldn't have agreed to go on an A-ranked mission. _Children _wouldn't stand up to an enemy, if they didn't want to. They're no less ninjas than you or me, Yuuhi." He pressed his razor sharp blade closer to their throats, causing them to gasp. "Now, call that old dinosaur out here so I can kill him. And if I feel merciful, I MIGHT let you and your pups live. But if you so much as…."

He didn't even finish his sentence, when the two ninjas he had in his possession suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. 'WHAT THE FUCK?' Both Zabuza and Kurenai thought, wide eyed at what they just witnessed.

( POW! )

Immediately afterwards, Hinata and Naruto appeared behind Zabuza, and both delivered a couple of good hits in. Naruto performed a round house kick to Zabuza's face, and sent him stumbling backwards. Then, before he could regain his balance, Hinata ran up and caught him in the stomach with a chakra filled Jyuuken strike. "DANM BRATS!" Zabuza yelled, throwing his swords directly at Naruto and Hinata. But they managed to jump out of the way, and avoided getting harmed. I

Seeing her chance, Kurenai performed another set of hand signs. "Kenjutsu (Weapon Jutsu): Shuriken Storm!" Smoke erupted all around Kurenai, which also shielded her students from being seen. And suddenly, before the smoke even cleared, shuriken after shuriken shot out. Zabuza managed to shield himself from most of the weapons, but a couple found their way into his leg and shoulder.

He hissed in pain, and looked to the nearby lake. Still being protected by his sword, he turned and performed another set of hand signs. "SUITON: WATER DRAGON!" From out of the lake, a large water serpent shot from the water, and moved in front of Zabuza. The rest of the shuriken penetrated half way into it, before coming to a halt. Zabuza yanked the shuriken from out his shoulder and led, and let out another hiss of pain. 'Damn it. Guess this is what I get for being reckless.' "Get ready, leaf ninja!" The dragon turned to the three ninjas, and let out a frightening roar. Then he shot towards them, ready to devour all of them.

Thinking quickly, Kurenai started performing hand signs. "Get behind me, you two!" Once Hinata and Naruto got behind her, Kurenai finished her required hand signs. "Doton: Earth Wall!" Suddenly, a giant slab of rock busted out of the ground. It was ten feet long, ten feet high, and eight feet thick. But it wasn't enough. When the water dragon smacked against the stone wall, it broke through. The amount of force sent Naruto, Hinata, and Kurenai flying backwards, smacking against some trees.

"AARGH!" Kurenai cried, reaching for her leg. Her leg took a lot of damage both from the water dragon attack, and from hitting a tree. A small part of her femur was sticking out of her leg, and blood was steadily streaming out. And to make matters worse, she was losing consciousness, due to the amount of chakra she was using. She looked over to Naruto and Hinata, who were spitting out water. "Naruto… Hinata…. Get back to Chouji and Tazuna." Kurenai said, trying to keep her eyes open.

"No way, sensei." Hinata disagreed. "You saved our asses, no we'll save yours."

"I don't think so…." The voice belonged to Zabuza. When they looked up, the three was horrified to see Zabuza, and two more clones. The tips of their massive blades rested against their throats. "That was a very cute trick you two pulled. I'll give you that." The man snarled, narrowing his eyes at the three. "But unfortunately, those were the LAST TRICKS YOU'LL EVE…."

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Expansion Jutsu)!" All of a sudden, a massive open palm came swinging towards the three assassins. They couldn't react in time, and were all caught in Chouji's attack. Chouji's large hand wrapped around Zabuza and his two clones, and SLAMMED them against the trunk of a tree. The two clones disappeared in a puff of smoke, but the real Zabuza had to suffer. "HAHA! Gotcha!" Chouji chuckled, and his giant hand tightened around the now trapped mist ninja.

"Great timing, Chouji-san!" Hinata said, as she and Naruto helped the barely conscious Kurenai to her feet. Tazuna ran up, once it was clear that Zabuza wasn't going anywhere. Hinata narrowed her eyes at the captured Zabuza, and spat on the ground before him. "Come on, Chouji-san, give him a tighter squeeze for what he did to Kurenai-sensei."

"Yes ma'am." Chouji chuckled. But before Chouji could even got a chance to squeeze harder, two Hari (Throwing Needles) came flying in from the forest. They found their mark, and both sank into Zabuza's neck. Zabuza let out a dying gasp, before slumping forward. A puff of smoke appeared on the very tree Chouji was holding Zabuza.

When the smoke cleared, it revealed s slender boy. He wore a dark green kimono, with a long green scarf wrapped round his neck. Underneath the kimono, he wore a pair a green baggy shorts, and a pair of wooden sandals. His face was shielded from everyone by a white mask, with the symbol of the hidden mist village engraved on it. "Who are you?" Kurenai demanded, as Hinata, Naruto and Chouji dashed around Tazuna.

"My name is Haku…"

To Be Continued…..

I'M BACK! Did you all miss me? I'm sorry I haven't updated this story for a while. Here is the list of reasons I haven't been able to get to of have the time to use the computer. Flu, computer problems, problems getting another computer, and I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled out. So, so far, I have had a VERY hectic beginning to my summer vacation. But enough about me. How did you all like the update? I hope it is to your likings. Please leave plenty of reviews if you liked the update. Again, I apologize for how long it took me to update the story. So, here is my twist as to how it would go down if team 8 met Zabuza Momochi. I hope you all enjoyed the update. I have other stories that need updating, so please be patient for another chapter. And if you see any spelling errors, please tell me in a PM, not in a review. Just one of my pet peevs. Again, hope you enjoyed, and sorry for the lateness of my update. PEACE!


	10. Welcome to Nami no Kuni

Rating: M

Pairing: NaruHina, and more as the story progresses.

Author's Notes: HEY THERE, EVERYONE! It's Mr. Alaska again! So sorry for another late update. I've been having trouble getting back on my writing horse. And, unfortunately, some things are coming up. The first thing is that school is starting back up. The second thing is that I'm looking for a job. So with those two factors, I'll be updating even less than I am now. I know, and I'm sorry, but these things are things we can't avoid. But, since I still have under a month of my summer vacation left, I'll try to update my stories as often as possible. I hope you all understand if you don't hear from me as often. But, anyway, here we go. The team just encountered Zabuza Momochi, and the "Hunter-Nin" Haku. What will happen next? How will the team react to Haku's interference? Please leave plenty of reviews, and check out my poll. PEACE!

Chapter 10: Welcome to Nami no Kuni

The team stared in astonishment as the masked shinobi leapt from the tree, landing on the ground next to the impaled Zabuza. Kurenai, still nervous, slowly reached for a kunai. "I'm sorry if I startled you, but this is my job," The masked boy started, using a soft, soothing voice. "My name is Haku, and I'm a Hunter-Nin. My team and I have been tracking Zabuza for some time now. And I just so happened to be in the forest, when I heard you and your team fighting someone." Feeling more at ease, Kurenai turned to her team and nodded her head, silently telling them to lower their guard.

And when the three Gennin lowered their weapons, Haku continued. "I have been waiting in the trees, watching you combat Zabuza Momochi. If I came in to interfere, I fear I would've lost yet another chance to kill him. But it seems your team of Gennin are more skilled then the average Gennin team should be." Hinata, Chouji and Naruto smiled, and nodded their heads at the kind compliment. Haku then turned to Kurenai. "I'd like to thank you for assisting in the kill of the missing ninja Zabuza Momochi. And I would really appreciate knowing your names, so I can pass it on to my superior."

The team nodded and gave the masked mist shinobi their names. Haku wrote them down, before bowing his head respectfully. "Thanks again, Kurenai-san, Naruto-san, Chouji-san, Hinata-san," he thanked, as he lifted the dead body onto his shoulder. "Zabuza Momochi was too dangerous to be kept alive. And the families damaged by him will know justice has been dealt. On behalf of my village, I thank you." And with that, Haku and Zabuza's body disappeared in a puff of smoke.

When Haku and Zabuza were gone, the team was left in awkward silence. Hinata scratched the back of her head, and chuckled. "Hehheheheee… So, how much further till we get to Nami no Kuni?"

**MEANWHILE, DEEP IN THE FOREST**

Somewhere, deep in the dark forest, Haku and Zabuza reappeared. The masked boy threw the larger man's body to the ground, looked around, and let out a tired sigh. "You're getting too reckless, Zabuza-sama. The first thing you taught me was NOT to let your guard down under any circumstances…" Haku knelt down, and pulled out the two senbon in his master's neck. "Wake up, Zabuza-sama."

Zabuza's eyes shot open, and he growled at Haku. "Dammit Haku, don't you know how much that fucking hurts?" he asked angrily.

"My apologies, Zabuza-sama, but it was my duty to keep them from killing you. Besides, I've learned quite a bit by watching them," Haku said in his deceivingly feminine voice.

Zabuza grinned. "Good. Now carry me back to the base. My body won't fucking move yet," he ordered, half amused, half pissed off.

**BACK WITH THE OTHERS**

The team, after 20 more minutes of walking, had just entered the port town of Nami no Kuni, and were appalled at what they saw. The city Tazuna lived in was filled with poor people, trash, and random thugs, brandishing katana swords on their waists. There were people huddling around fires that were burning in garbage cans. There were merchants selling little and indecent produce, at deadly high prices. Kids were running through the streets, wearing rags and barefoot. Kurenai, Hinata, Chouji, and Naruto were stunned. "This is terrible…" Kurenai whispered, in a deadly silent whisper. "You mean to tell me that this is how Gato runs this country?" The bridge builder looked at her with sorrow filled eyes, and nodded.

"Yes…" Tazuna answered, taking off his straw hat and wiping the sweat off of his forehead. "Gato rules with dictatorship, and doesn't give a rat's ass about the people of this country. His immense wealth allows him to. And no one ever had the courage to stand up to him, not since…" He stopped, not wanting to bring up that subject. "If you disobeyed the laws of this country, that monster would hold a public execution to make an example." Naruto, Hinata and Chouji looked at the old man with shock, as Kurenai merely squeezed her fists in rage.

Hinata frowned at the thugs who were staring at them. "This isn't right… Other villages should have came to your aid," she mumbled, sticking her tongue out at the small group of thugs. One scowled, and was about to march toward them, when the one beside him stopped him. That one then whispered something into his ear, saying something that caused the first thug to step back into the group. "The country is ruled by a tyrant. He has worthless thugs and mercenaries terrorizing the people, and is causing them to live in poverty. Somebody should have done something by now."

Tazuna allowed a small smile to appear on his face… but he followed up by shaking his head. "It wouldn't matter. Gato would just find a different way to make the people of this land suffer. The only way this country will ever be freed is when that monster stops breathing." Naruto was about to add something, when a small tug came at the hem of his coat. The blond boy turned around, and saw a small homeless girl. Just like all of the other children of Nami no Kuni, she wore raggy clothes. There was dirt spots on her face, and her black hair was messy and untamed. The girl extended her hands and opened them, as if she was asking for something. But unlike a LARGE majority of her fellow people, this homeless girl had on a small, innocent smile.

Naruto, with a nervous smile on his face, reached into his pocket and pulled out some coins. "Umm… h-here you go…" he stuttered, dropping the silver coins into the little girl's hands. "I hope it's e-enough." Then, before he knew it, the little girl leapt forward and gave Naruto a tight hug. Then she ran off, turning down a alley.

Seeing this, Tazuna couldn't help but chuckle. "Ya see? I never saw anyone do anything like that here. People are either too poor or too cruel and ignorant to show such kindness." Naruto blushed, and shrugged his shoulders. "We need more people like you… People who would make a effort to help this land, besides me and some of my friends." As the team made their way though the dirt-poor town, they came across a couple of thugs, who were harassing an old woman.

"OK, lady. Cough up this month's pay," one growled, as he leaned forward and held himself up by the woman's house. "We've been real patient with you this entire month, and feel you have had enough time. So if you'd be so kind, please cough up the money." Kurenai and the others stopped in the middle of the street, and witnessed the two heartless men hustle the old lady.

The woman was somewhere around 70-80 years old. She was shaking like a leaf, as she held herself up with her cane. "Please… Business has been bad," she pleaded, her voice low and shaky. But the men in front of her simply rolled their eyes. "I'm sorry, but I need more time."

"Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you this…" one of the thugs sighed, as he and his friend slowly reached for their swords. "But our boss doesn't give second chances. His rule is if someone can't produce enough money, get rid of them and replace them with someone younger and better. And while you were useful to our boss for a while… I fear that your usefulness had run out. So come with us, and you won't get h…"

All of a sudden, a puff of smoke appeared behind them. Before the men could react, something sharp and cold pressed up against their throats. "Sorry gentlemen, but this has gone on long enough…" They suddenly heard a female's voice coming from behind them. And when the smoke finally cleared, Kurenai was revealed, with a kunai pressed against both of the thugs' jugular veins. "Now, either both of you boys turn, and NEVER bother this woman again, or I can take your heads off, right here, right now." Venom was dripping off of every word the kunoichi spoke. Shivers of terror went down the thugs' spines, as Kurenai pressed the blades closer to their throats. "So, which one will it be?"

At first, neither of the thugs did anything. They looked at each other nervously, their eyes bulging out and sweat dripping down their faces. And after ten seconds without getting a response, Kurenai pressed the cold sharpened steel even harder against their necks. This got one of them to comply. "OK! OK! We're as good as gone!" he cried, worried for his life. When Kurenai looked at the other one, he nodded, agreeing with his partner.

So with a heavy sigh, Kurenai took the kunai from their necks and stepped back. The two thugs coughed and massaged the part of their neck that almost got sliced. And without giving Kurenai a death threat or glaring at her, the two men ran off frantically, causing the villagers to look at the team with suspicion. They've seen shop owners and villagers running for their lives before, but NEVER had they seen Gato's men running for anything. Kurenai scoffed, put her two kunai in her pouch, and turned to speak with the old woman. But to her surprise, she wasn't there. Right before Gato's men ran off, the elderly woman retreated back into her home/store.

"She's grateful for what you've done," Tazuna reassured, placing a hand on Kurenai's shoulder. "But people here do their best not to stand out. Because anyone who's seen conversing with someone who defies Gato's laws is seen as just as guilty as those who defy him." Tazuna's statement was proven right when all of the nearby villagers retreated into their homes as well. When Kurenai saw all the villagers go into their houses, Tazuna looked down and sighed. "Come on… We should get to my house before word spreads about you guys," he said, leading the ninja team in the direction of his house.

**AT TAZUNA'S HOUSE**

It was another hour of walking after the run in with the thugs, and the team finally arrived at Tazuna's house. It was a simple two story house, right on the water. They entered, and were immediately greeted by a woman with long dark blue hair, wearing a pink shirt, and a blue skirt. "Dad! You're home!" she cried happily, as she caught her father in a crushing hug. "I'm so glad you made it back safe and sound. Did anything happen on the way?" Tazuna looked at his daughter, Tsunami, and smiled.

"Besides a few… unsuspected instances… everything went just fine." The woman looked at her father with a stern look, and put her hands on her hips.

"What does that mean?"

The woman turned to Kurenai. "We ran into a few things that slowed us down, but we dealt with them in a quick and efficient way," Kurenai answered, bowing respectively to the older woman. Hinata smiled devilishly, and jumped in.

"YEAH!" She cried loudly, causing Tsunami to jump back in surprise. "We took on two wimpy-ass ninjas and some famous missing-nin named Zabuza Momochi… AND WON!" Naruto blushed at Hinata's tomboyish attitude. But then, all of a sudden, Hinata hooked an arm around Naruto's head and gave him a friendly noogie. "Isn't that right, Naruto-kun?" Kurenai and Tsunami smiled at seeing Naruto turn red as a lobster. She'd only known these people for about three minutes, and already she could tell that Hinata liked Naruto.

"It doesn't matter how strong you are. Gato will find a way to get to my grandpa, and nothing is gonna stop him." Everybody turned to see a young boy, standing on the stairway. He wore a plain white shirt, green overalls, a white hat with two blue stripes on it, and had short black hair. And he had an emotionless expression on his face.

"Inari, behave yourself!" Tazuna demanded, with the boy's expression not changing a bit. "These ninja just saved me from being killed by highly trained ninjas on two different occasions! So show them some respect." But the boy simply turned around and went to his room, leaving the team confessed.

"Who was that?" Hinata asked, releasing Naruto from her hold. Tsunami looked sadly at the young kunoichi, and sighed.

"Please excuse Inari. He's been through a lot because of Gato," she began, with a sad look in her eyes. "A couple of years ago… he lost someone very close to him because of Gato. You see, a few years ago, Inari was playing near the lake, when some other kids came along and pushed him off a dock and into the water. He couldn't swim, and he needed help. Then he came and saved him… A man named Kaiza." The team took a seat in some nearby chairs, and listened to the interesting story.

"He jumped in and saved him. And as time passed, Inari began to see him as a father figure. Inari loved him very much, and he cared for him as an actual father. Kaiza was considered a true hero here. He helped save lives and all that good stuff. He made everybody feel happy and gave them confidence." Tsunami took a second and smiled at the remembrance of Kaiza. But her smile disappeared in a flash.

"But then, Gato came. He was determined to rule Nami no Kuni, and used his power to force the people to obey his laws. But Kaiza was the one person that wouldn't obey or surrender. So, Gato had his thugs go get him and take him to the courtyard. And then… they held a public execution, showing what would happen to those who would think about going against his orders. Inari was in the crowd, and saw the death of his father. He hasn't been the same since. He started acting out, and then gave up hope on ever being free from Gato."

Silence…

To Be Continued…

OK… OK… I know you all probably hate me for making this chapter extra, extra short. But I have some valid reasons. One, I'm starting school again soon, so it might be some time before I'm able to update again. Two, I'm going through a rough spot with this part of the story, so I thought I might as well leave it here for now. But don't worry, the next one will stand up to your standards. Three, I'm kinda getting swamped with requests for more and more updates for my Naruto stories… so I'm gonna take a break from them, and work on my less popular stories. Four, I need some inspiration. Lately, I've been going through some depression spells, and need some time to get my Naruto spirit back… does anyone have any suggestions? Anyway, sorry for the long wait, only to get a short ass chapter. I hope you all can forgive me. Please check out my other stories:

Annoying Friend or Annoying Foe (Deadpool/Teen Titans crossover)

Deadliest Warrior (Self Explanatory)

Evil is Only Skin Deep (Naruto)

Meeting Your Demons (Naruto)

Out of the Smoky Ruins (Deadpool/Naruto crossover)

Resurrection of an Angel (Teen Titans)

Son of a Mercenary (Deadpool/Naruto crossover)

Son of a Mercenary Part 2 (Deadpool/Naruto crossover)

The Two Demons of Konoha (Naruto)

To Release a Caged Bird (Naruto)

To Save a Life (Naruto)

Toad, the X-Man (X-Men Evolution)

Valentines Day Miracle (X-Men Evolution)

Please enjoy those other stories while you all wait for this story to be updated. Leave plenty of reviews. PEACE!


	11. Another Notice

Hello all of my loyal readers. It is me, Mr. Alaska. I am here to tell you I am taking a break from my Naruto stories. Please don't be mad at me. I feel bad that you all have been waiting for so long for a update. But I am ashamed to admit I am running out of creative ideas and such. Again, I feel bad about leaving all you fellow NaruHina fans hanging. But I need a break to flex my frontal lobe and all. But I will keep writing, just not Naruto.

I am currently writing Kick Buttowski stories…. I know. It is sad for a 17 year-old to be interested in a Disney Channel cartoon like Kick Buttowski. But I can honestly say that KB is among the most hardcore kids cartoons out there. So, I am tacking the pace slow by trying my hand at that. I also encourage anyone interested to write one or two, if you are familiar with the show and are interested. We need more KB stories out there now a days.

But I assure all you Naruto fans to not worry. I should be up and running by Christmas vacation. So, yeah, you all have that to look forward to. Again, I feel really bad if a lot of you are waiting for a update to stories like, "Evil is Only Skin Deep," or, "The Two Demons of Konoha," and so forth. I hope you all forgive me for what I am doing. And even though this isn't an actual update, I encourage you all to review and tell me what you think about my decision. I will await patiently for your thoughts. I hope to hear from you all soon. And please, if anyone has any suggestions for any of the stories you want updated, please tell me about it through PM. Again, I hope to hear from you all soon. PEACE!

Sincerely, Mr. Alaska, also known as Ron :D


	12. Rematch at the Bridge

Rating: M

Pairing: NaruHina, and more as the story progresses.

Author's Notes: YO! Its me, Mr. Alaska! I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so sorry for the long-ass wait for an actual update. Things have been slow, as I keep on telling you. Christmas, job searching, driving lessons, updating other stories… I am simply swamped. But hey, I still try. But here I am, with another update. Again, sorry this one took so long. I am going to finish this story, I promise. So, in the last chapter (actual chapter) Team 8 had just entered Nami no Kuni, where they witnessed the poverty and suffering that was going on there. What'll happen now? Will things go smoothly, or will things go horribly wrong? You will find out here! Leave plenty of reviews. And again, very sorry about the long wait. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 12: Rematch at the Bridge

Everyone stood in awkward silence. They didn't know what to say by this point. This was a lot to hear in one day, not to mention what they had just witnessed first hand. Kurenai sighed and looked out the window, as it began to rain. 'This isn't right,' she thought, as she began to pace. 'This man Gato should have been killed a long time ago. And if he's trying to get rid of the Tazuna-san, then my team and I have more work to do. But this is getting to dangerous for them.' She paused and looked at her team. Naruto and Chouji were looking from the ground to one another, thinking about what was happening. But when she looked for Hinata, she was surprised to discover that her loud-mouthed kunoichi wasn't with the others.

"Where's Hinata?"

Naruto and Chouji looked around. They shrugged their shoulders, showing that they didn't know. "Well, I guess I should go," Tazuna sighed, as he reached for his hardhat that was beside the door. "That bridge won't finish itself, will it?"

**IN INARI'S ROOM**

Inari sat on his window sill, silently crying. His feet were dangling off the side of his window, getting drenched by the falling rain. But he didn't care. He was too sad and miserable to care about getting wet. "It's hopeless," he whimpered to himself, as his tears stared mixing with the rain. "No matter how hard we try, Gato will never stop. Nothing will ever stop him from ruining our lives. Soon enough, he'll take away my grandpa, just like Papa."

"That's why we're here." All of a sudden, Inari heard another voice from behind him. He turned, and saw Hinata, leaning in his doorway. She looked at him with a tired gaze, while he wiped the tears from his eyes. "Why do you think that Gato is some sort of unkillable god, when he is nothing more than a wealthy criminal," she asked, raising an eyebrow as she scratched the back of her neck. "He isn't immortal, you know. He can die too. The only question is why do you seem to think that things will never get better."

Inari scowled at the kunoichi. "Because he's too powerful, that's why!" he countered, using an angry tone, though he was still holding back tears. "He has the money to do whatever he wants! He has the money to have people killed! He has an army of mercenaries that will do whatever he orders!" Tears started running down his face again.

"So what?" Hinata asked. Inari looked up at her, shocked at how casual she sounded. "My team and I can handle anything. Believe it!" Seeing that the boy wasn't convinced, she smirked. "We handled two Chuunin-level assassins and _Zabuza Momochi_," she said, stressing the name of the infamous missing-nin. Inari looked surprised at hearing this. He had hear about him. He was well known. "Yeah," Hinata continued, sounding proud. "We took care of him. No sweat."

But Inari shook his head and walked back to his window. "I doesn't matter," he repeated, getting back up on the window sill. "So what if you beat those guys? There are many more just like them, all working for Gato. It is only a matter of time before they get Grandpa."

"Will you shut up and lighten up?" Hinata nearly shouted. "We won't let anything happen to him! If we can handle Zabuza Momochi, the Demon in the Mist, I'm damn sure we can handle a mean business man."

"You don't know what he is capable of!" Inari shouted back. "He has no heart, no soul, and shows no remorse for anything he does! I've seen his men kill children my age, in front of their own parents! Everyday, somewhere, someone is dying because of Gato! We have tried to fight against him, but that ended in the death of Kaiza, my father! How can you understand what its like to go through all of that?"

Hinata looked at Inari, who was now glaring at her, with tear stained eyes. But she countered his glare with her own. "You're right. I wouldn't know what it's like," she answered calmly, but kept her stern gaze. "But my friend Naruto-kun would have a good idea, though." The young boy raised a eyebrow. "That blond boy downstairs? He's an orphan. He had no one looking over him his entire life. He was kicked out of his orphanage when he was six, and left to fend for himself. And for reasons I know nothing about, he has been beaten by villagers since then." Inari went silent, so Hinata continued.

"You are lucky, you ungrateful brat. You still have a mother and grandfather who love you and care about you. Naruto-kun has none of that. So stop crying and be grateful. Be grateful for the fact that we are here to make sure nothing happens to Tazuna. Be grateful that when the bridge is complete, everything will be better." She knew she was laying it down pretty thick, but she had to speak her mind. Inari was speechless. He merely stared at her as she turned to leave.

**DEEP IN THE FOREST SOMEWHERE**

Deep in the forest, there was a large hideout hidden in a large tree. It was basically an oversized tree house, but made of steel and iron. It was the same size as a house, but the leaves concealed it. Inside, Zabuza Momochi lay in a large bed, with bandages covering his injured body parts. Beside him, Haku stood, with an herbal drink to boost Zabuza's strength. Then, a knock came at the large oak doors. "What is it?" Zabuza growled.

The doors flew open, and in walked a short man, with messy, spiky brown hair, glassed and a black business suit. Behind him followed two thugs, armed with Katana swords. "Well, well… I had to see it to believe it," the short man began, sounding disappointed. "Zabuza Momochi, the most feared shinobi in Mizu no Kuni, bested by a woman and three snot-nosed kids. I never thought I would see the day."

Then from out of nowhere, a shuriken flew in and struck the wall, right beside Gato's head, causing the short businessman to nearly wet himself. Haku was the one who threw it. "Watch your tongue, _Gato_, before I chop it off." While Gato's men stood in front of him, with their swords drawn, Zabuza chuckled and raised a hand.

"That's enough, Haku. I can handle this," he said, causing the boy to step back. When it was clear a fight wasn't going to happen, Gato ordered his men to step back. "I admit. I underestimated that Gennin team. They were more skilled than I anticipated." Gato raised a eyebrow, as he witnessed Zabuza's smile through his bandaged face. "But that won't happen again."

"And the old bridge builder?" Gato asked. "I am paying you a handsome fee to dispose him for me. And I expect to see results… TONIGHT!" But while he was ordering the dangerous man around like some lowly servant, Zabuza noticed that Gato was shaking. This caused Zabuza to laugh.

"You are a funny little man, Gato," he chuckled as he stood up. Everyone heard pops and cracks, but Zabuza acted like he was perfectly healthy. "You order me, Zabuza Momochi, around like a dog, but you are wise enough to not forget to fear Haku and me… You are a lucky man. Lucky that I pride myself on my work more than what you think of me." Then, after removing all the bandages and flexing his muscles, the missing-nin reached and grabbed his massive sword.

"Zabuza-sama," Haku began, walking up beside Zabuza, "are you sure you're ready? You still need to recover more." The large man snickered, and threw his sword over his shoulder.

"Thanks Haku, but I'm okay. Now that we know what we're dealing with, we can handle them…" After finishing his herbal drink, he made his way to the large oak door with Haku by his side. "We have an old man to kill."

**BACK WITH TEAM 8**

Hinata walked downstairs after blowing up at Inari. Kurenai and the others were waiting in the living room, having heard everything. Tsunami looked at the girl with a angry glare, as did Kurenai. "You were out of line, Hinata," Kurenai said, as Tsunami went up to see her son. "You had no grounds to say such hurtful things to Inari. He has gone through a lot, and you need to respect that. Everyone copes differently."

"Well, it had to be said," she sighed, making her way to Naruto and Chouji. When she sat down, she looked at Chouji and Naruto, who were both staring at her. "What?"

"Oh! Nothing," Chouji said, looking away in panic. "Just a little surprised at how you went off on the poor kid."

"He needs to grow up," she countered, as she folded her arms across her chest and pouted. "He's crying about losing his father and how it is hopeless for things to change, when we are here to fix that very problem. Beside… I was only pointing out that his life isn't so bad compared to others." Hinata tried not to look at Naruto, since it was his life she compared to Inari's. But he heard that part, too.

"Well," Kurenai sighed, stretching her arms, "I guess we can do some training while we wait."

**ONE HOUR LATER**

The team spent a whole hour sparring with one another. They switched up every once in a while. Naruto against Hinata for around 10 minutes, then they'd switch with someone else, like have Hinata go up against Chouji and Naruto go up against Kurenai, and so on. And even though all of the students were panting heavily and sweating, Kurenai was pleased. While they didn't know it, they were slowly getting faster, and their reflexes were improving for fights.

Smirking proudly, Kurenai stood in front of her winded team with her hands on her hips. "You three are improving," she began, getting all three to look up at her. "Naruto's reaction time is improving, along with his hand-to-hand combat skills. Hinata's Jyuuken style is also getting better. And Chouji's endurance has almost doubled since we started sparring."

The three Gennin smiled happily, even while they sweated and gasped for each breath. "I have one last thing I want to run past you three, though," she continued, as she reached into her back pouch. Then, she pulled out four sheets of white paper. She held them up, so the three could see. "This is called Chakra Paper."

"Umm… W-what's Chakra Paper, K-Kurenai-sensei?" Naruto asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"Here," she said, grabbing a sheet of paper, "I'll demonstrate." Kurenai simply held the paper in her hand, as if she were giving it to somebody, so it was flat, horizontally. And, after applying some chakra, the piece of paper started to smoke, before lighting on fire. "My element is fire," Kurenai said, as the fiery sheet of paper fell to the ground, where Kurenai stomped it out. "So, that means my specialty, besides genjutsu, is fire-style ninjutsu."

"Wow! That was awesome," Hinata shouted, pumping her fist into the air. "Let me try!"

Smiling, Kurenai handed the paper to Hinata. "Only a small amount of chakra," Kurenai reminded. "It doesn't take much to activate the Chakra Paper."

"I know, I know," the Hyuuga said impatiently, even though she didn't know that before. With the paper in hand, Hinata took a few breaths, before applying a small amount of chakra to the paper. At first, nothing happened. But then, Hinata started to feel her hand getting cold and wet. She opened her eyes to see that her piece of paper was now completely soaked with water.

"It seems your chakra element is water," Kurenai said, as Hinata dropped the wet piece of paper on the ground and dried her hand off on her pants leg. "So your chakra is best when it is applied to water-style ninjutsu." She then handed another piece of paper to Chouji. When he applied chakra, the paper became stiff. He looked at it and saw something that resembled dirt was covering his sheet of paper. "And yours is earth."

Finally, Kurenai handed the last sheet of paper to Naruto. He was hesitant at first. He looked, and saw that everyone was watching him intently. He got nervous. But, after taking a few deep breaths, Naruto closed his eyes, and applied chakra to the paper. All of a sudden, there was a loud whistling sound. Naruto's eyes snapped open to see that his sheet of paper wasn't in his hand anymore. He looked around, to see everyone was looking up. So he did, too. Floating down from above, was his paper, now split it two. "Wh-what d-does that m-mean, K-Kurenai-sensei?" Naruto stuttered, as the two pieces of paper fell to the ground.

With a smile, Kurenai looked down at Naruto. "That, Naruto, means that your chakra element is wind. Though, you applied a little too much chakra to the paper," she added, getting a blush of embarrassment from the blond boy. She let out a tired sigh when Hinata started cheering happily at Naruto's demonstration. So, she continued. "You all can take a break now. Take five minutes, catch your breath, get a drink, and come into the house with me."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Naruto, Hinata, and Chouji sat down by separate trees. They were all sweating still, but at least they could relax now. "Damn, that was exhausting," Hinata groaned. "Can you pass me your canteen, Naruto-kun? I'm parched."

"S-sure, H-Hinata-chan," Naruto said, reaching into his pouch. He pulled out his canteen filled with water and tossed it to Hinata. "D-do you mind t-tossing me s-some of your ration bar, C-Chouji-san?"

"Sure thing, buddy," Chouji said, snapping his ration bar in half, and chucking it to Naruto.

"Th-thanks."

"No problem." As Naruto took a bite from his bar, he heard a faint splashing sound. He turned his attention back to Hinata. She had splashed her face with a little of Naruto's water. She was doing this to cool herself off. Then, she wiped the water from her face up into her hair. Now her hair was damp. Humming a song to herself, she pulled out a little brush, and started brushing her hair.

She opened her eyes. Naruto, Chouji, and Kurenai were all looking at her. "What?" she asked, as she continued to brush her hair. "Can't a girl look pretty when on a mission? Or is that not allowed?" Kurenai rolled her eyes and Chouji chuckled, before going back to eating his ration bar. Naruto, on the other hand, was blushing. But when Hinata looked at him, Naruto quickly looked away.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!"

"What the fuck?" Kurenai hissed, as she and her students leapt to their feet and rushed upstairs. When they got to Inari's room, they saw two thugs, who had obviously climbed in through the window, holding Inari and his mother, with knife blades pressed against their throats. Kurenai, reaching for a kunai, glared at the two men. "Release them, NOW."

One of the thugs snickered evilly. "You are in no position to be ordering us around, bitch. Gato ordered us to keep you four busy. And that is precisely what we intend to do." Realizing what he meant, Kurenai turned to the others. "Oh no you don't!" the man snarled, "if you or any of your students leave to help that old fuck, the lady and the brat die!"

'God damnit!' Kurenai shouted in her head. 'This is bad! Tazuna is in danger! And now Tsunami and Inari are in danger, too! What else can go wrong?'

**BACK AT THE BRIDGE**

Tazuna and his workers were completing the bridge. "Okay boys," Tazuna shouted, as he and his friends started finishing up on the bridge. "We're almost done! We only have three feet to go before we're officially done with this damn thing!" Tazuna's friends cheered happily when Tazuna made that announcement. Then Tazuna looked at off into the distance, and noticed a large mass of fog was rolling its way towards them. This confused the old bridge builder. He noticed that it was also raining. "What the hell?"

"Hey Tazuna!" The old man turned to see one of the workers. "Have you seen any of the other guys? They should have been here by now." Tazuna looked around, and shook his head.

"Guys! We have got to get out of here!" Tazuna turned to see a villager running at them, frantic. "The Demon of the Mist is coming this way! Zabuza Momochi is coming!" Tazuna dropped his hammer when he heard this. As all of the other workers fled the bridge, thick fog rolled in, covering everything. Tazuna stood there, petrified, when from out of the thick fog walked in Zabuza Momochi, with his sword on his shoulder.

"Hello, old man," Zabuza growled, "I'm back."

"N-no… You're dead. I saw you die," Tazuna stuttered as he slowly stepped backwards in horror. The masked man chuckled as he slowly walked towards him. But then, a barrage of shuriken and kunai flew in and headed straight for Zabuza. He quickly pulled out his sword and used it as a shield. All of the shuriken and kunai either flew past him or bounced off the sword. He looked and saw Team 8, running up behind Tazuna.

"Hehehe," Zabuza chuckled, stepping out from behind his sword. "You were almost too late, weren't you?" Kurenai frowned and shook her head.

**FLASHBACK**

"Stop crying and shut up, bitch!" one of the thugs shouted at Tsunami. She had just got done pleading for them to release Inari and to keep her instead. But it didn't work. "You two aren't going anywhere!"

"Let me mom go, you jerks!" Inari shouted as he slammed the back of his head into the face of the man that was holding him. Said thug let out a shout of pain before unknowingly releasing his hold on Inari. The other man, watching his partner get headbutted by Inari, lost concentration on Kurenai and her team.

'NOW!' Kurenai thought, as she pulled out two shuriken and hurled them at the two distracted men. One shuriken found its way into the neck of one thug, while the other shuriken ended up smack dab in between the eyes of the second man. Both stumbled back, dead. Inari and Tsunami were safe.

"QUICK!" Kurenai shouted. "We have to get back to the bridge! Tazuna is in danger!"

**END FLASHBACK**

To Be Continued…

I know. It's another short chapter. And I'm sorry. But the reason it's so short is because there's going to be an epic battle following up after this. So since the next chapter will cover the entire battle against Zabuza and Haku, it will more than make up for this chapter's short length. The team learned that Zabuza is still alive. And now that he knows what Kurenai and her team are capable of, Team 8 is in for one hell of a fight, wouldn't you think? Anyways, I have a new poll opened up on my profile. It is to determine which story I update next. Choose wisely. Please forgive the shortness of this chapter, and leave plenty of reviews if you found this chapter the bit least entertaining. I hope to hear from y'all soon. Peace!


	13. The Cry of Kyuubi no Kitsune

Rating: M

Pairing: NaruHina, and more as the story progresses.

Author's Notes: Again, I can't apologize enough for making all you Naruto fans wait so long. I got caught up in a different story. It's a Invader Zim fanfic called When Your World Comes Tumbling Down. I know, it's embarrassing for a 17 year old to like those types of cartoons. But, I'm not ashamed. It's nice to keep an inner child inside you, and still be an adult (Without being creepy, anyway). But with all that aside, I am glad to say I am back with another update. We left off on a stressful part in the story. Zabuza Momochi is "back from the dead" and out for blood… Tazuna's blood, to be specific. But thankfully, Team 8 arrived onto the scene just in time to stop him. But now, how will things go for the team now that Zabuza knows their moves and abilities? Well, all of that will be answered right here, right now. So sit back, relax, grab a bowl of ramen and enjoy the much awaited chapter. PEACE!

Chapter 13: The Cry of Kyuubi no Kitsune

"I guess I should have expected this," Zabuza sighed, as Team 8 stood in between him and Tazuna. "Those pathetic thugs Gato sent to kill the woman and child weren't much in the first place. Just a couple imbeciles with knives." He then took another look at the team of Leaf Shinobi. Kurenai had a kunai in both hands, with explosive tags attached to them. Naruto had summoned a couple of shadow clones, also carrying kunai. Hinata had activated her Byakugan and was in her clan's signature fighting stance. And Chouji stood right beside Tazuna, with humongous arms, having just performed the Bubun Baika no Jutsu.

"I'm not surprised you're still alive, Zabuza," Kurenai hissed. "I remember that "Hunter-Nin" dragged you off after throwing those senbon into your neck. It was convincing, at first. But it was when he picked you up and left when I knew something was up." Zabuza folded his arms across his chest, wanting Kurenai to explain more. "Hunter-Nin _never_ bring the bodies of Missing-Nin with them. They always cut the head off for proof, then dispose of them on the spot, usually with fire ninjutsu. But I assume that since you're still alive, that could only mean that Haku is with you, and isn't a real Hunter-Nin."

Kurenai narrowed her eyes at Zabuza when he started cackling to himself. "You're smarted than I gave you credit for, Yuuhi," the Missing-Nin replied, throwing his sword back on his shoulder. "You're right. Haku is with me." He paused, sighed, and turned his head. "Come on out, Haku," he shouted. "No point in hiding if they already know you're here!" At first, nothing. Kurenai and the others tensed up and looked around frantically. They knew Haku was there, but they didn't know _**where**_ he was. The entire bridge was surrounded by thick fog. And since the fog was pumped full of chakra, Hinata's Byakugan couldn't look through it.

But she didn't have to. A few seconds after Zabuza called his name, Haku slowly emerged from the fog and stepped beside his master. And with a sinister smirk showing through his bandaged face, Zabuza continued on. "I have to admit, if Haku wasn't there to bail me out of that little fix I was in, I would've been done for," he admitted, as he started cracking his neck. "For a for a team of Gennin, they have a surprising amount of potential." Then, with all compliments aside, a dark glare appeared on Zabuza's brow. "But because you refused to hand the old man over when you had the chance, none of you will live long enough to show it to anyone else."

When Zabuza took his humongous sword from off his shoulders, Kurenai turned to Chouji. "Chouji, I need you to stay with Tazuna in case anything goes wrong." Hearing that he was not to be apart of the fight, a grumpy frown took over Chouji's face. "I know you want to help your friends," Kurenai continued, patting him on the shoulder, "but we can't leave Tazuna alone. Who knows? There might be a band of thugs waiting to kill him while we battle Zabuza and Haku. We need someone to take care of him. So I don't want to hear any complaining from you." Feeling that his sensei made a good argument, Chouji nodded his head.

Kurenai turned to Naruto and Hinata after she gave Chouji his orders. "You two are to go up against Haku. Zabuza would be too much for you two to handle, so I'll handle him on my own." Hinata and Naruto looked at each other, before looking back at their sensei with worried expressions. "Don't worry. If anything, make sure that you stay on the defensive, so that you can familiarize yourselves with his fighting tactics. After that, you two can work together and take him down. Understand?" Even though Naruto was a little nervous about this, he struck a neutral look and nodded his head, as did Hinata.

After that being settled, Kurenai turned back to Zabuza and Haku, who were still standing patiently on the other side of the bridge. Zabuza was flexing his muscles, as if he was not concerned with the battle that was in the making. Haku just stood silently next to him, with his mask hiding any expression he might have. "Remember, Chouji," Kurenai whispered, getting ready to spring the attack, "whatever happens, just make sure Tazuna is safe." When Chouji nodded his head again, Kurenai, Hinata and Naruto leapt towards the two assassins, prepared to fight.

_**Meanwhile, Back in the Village….**_

All of the local villagers were gathering in the center of town, furious at what they have just heard. The workers from the bridge came into town, panicking and sweaty. When the villagers asked what was wrong, they were informed that Zabuza had arrived to kill Tazuna. "This has gone on for long enough," a villager shouted, causing all of the other angry villagers to give him their attention. "This is the work of Gato! That bastard wants Tazuna dead! He wants to ensure that Nami no Kuni will never get the help it so desperately needs. Gato will never let our suffering come to a end!"

The man picked up a bow and arrow, and lifted it into the air. Coincidentally, Tsunami and Inari were in the crowd, listening to the man's furious speech. "As long as the monster Gato is alive, Nami no Kuni will never be free! It is up to **US **now to fight back!" Inspired by the villager's words, everyone else cheered, agreeing with him. "We have four ninjas from Konohagakure fighting for our freedom, and three of them are mere children! It's time for us to stop hiding! It's time we stopped allowing Gato to get away with senseless murder of our innocent people! Because I, for one, will _**NEVER**_ allow children to fight and die for my freedom! If there is to be any fighting or dying, let it be OUR blood that falls!" The other villagers cheered louder, raising various weapons into the air.

As Inari watched, he witnessed the once scared villagers he grew up with show the first shred of courage in a long time. "It's clear now that Gato will do everything in his power to ensure our suffering," another villager agreed, brandishing a katana by his side. "Michiro is right! We must fight for our freedom and take back what rightfully belongs to us!" The villager then walked into the center of the large crowd. "All women and children, find places to hide! Every man who has the strength to fight will come with us! If we are to die by the hands of Gato and his men, let us die while taking some of them with us!"

As Inari watched all the able-bodied men go off in the direction of the bridge, all he could do was stare at them in amazement. He never imagined that he'd ever see the day when everyone would be showing the same amount courage Kaiza showed all those years ago. They didn't care about them losing their lives. They wanted to fight back and are willing to die trying.

_**Back at the Bridge….**_

"You got guts, Yuuhi, I'll give you that much," Zabuza growled, dashing back and forth to avoid the explosive kunai being thrown by Kurenai. "But without your precious Genjutsu, you're nothing special! Without them, you're just another paycheck to me!" After avoiding the kunai, Zabuza swung his sword at Kurenai. When the blade came at her, Kurenai merely leaned backwards. So when the blade went over her, she performed a barrel roll in midair and delivered a well-placed kick to the side of Zabuza's head. The large man was sent stumbling backwards, holding the side of his face that was kicked.

"That's where you're wrong, Momochi," Kurenai disagreed, while Zabuza regained his balance. As a shuriken fell out of her kimono dress and into her hand, she smirked. "I have a lot more tricks up my sleeves." In the blink of an eye, Kurenai threw the razor sharp shuriken at the _seemingly_ dazed man. But to her surprise, Zabuza's hand lashed upward and caught the shuriken in between his two fingers. He sent her a creepy grin, before looking to the ground. There was blood there. So he looked to the hand he was holding his face with and discovered that there was blood staining his bandages.

"Wow," he growled, throwing the shuriken to the ground. "That was an impressive kick, Yuuhi. To be able to break my skin with blunt force is quite something. That hasn't happened to me since I was a Gennin." Kurenai stared at Zabuza in confusion when he thrust his sword into the ground. "I see that my sword won't be as effective against _you_," he said, cracking his knuckles, "so I guess I'll just have to kill you up close and personally."

Then, without warning, Zabuza dashed forward and threw a punch at Kurenai. Thinking she could simply block the attack, Kurenai raised both her arms in front of her face. But when the punch landed, it had far more force behind it than anticipated. All of a sudden, Kurenai was sent skidding across the bridge. She skidded to a stop and let out a sharp hiss of pain. 'God damnit,' she thought, looking back up to see Zabuza casually walking towards her, 'it seems he was going easy on us the first time we fought.' Ignoring the pain in her arms, she dropped back down into her fighting stance. But to her surprise, Zabuza had stopped walking toward her. Now, he was standing up, with his hands on his hips. "Thinking on what to do next, Zabuza?" Kurenai asked, not expecting a straight answer.

Zabuza shook his head. "Nope. I already know how I'm going to kill you," he answered, letting out another evil snicker. "I'm just enjoying the show, is all." Confused, Kurenai raised an eyebrow. That's when Zabuza raised his hand and pointed in her direction. Hesitantly, Kurenai turned her head slightly, so she could both look behind herself and not take her full attention off from Zabuza.

But when she saw what he was pointing at, her eyes went wide with fear. "Wh-what in the world is tha…"

Before she could even complete her sentence, Zabuza appeared in front of her and had grabbed her by the neck. He lifted her into the air and looked at her with a menacing scowl. "That is Haku's special jutsu. Now, I'm afraid your dear little students are done for…" Then, Zabuza pulled out a kunai. "But don't worry. I'll kill you before you can witness it. Because I am, believe it or not, a very _merciful _man!"

"Hey! Ugly! Don't forget about **ME**!" All of a sudden, Chouji appeared on the scene and sent his enlarged fist crashing into Zabuza's chest, sending him skidding across the ground on his back.

_**With Naruto and Hinata….**_

Naruto and Hinata stood back-to-back, gazing at the jutsu Haku had just performed. All around them were giant sheets of thick ice, all levitating in the air. It made a huge dome around the two, who were frantically looking around for any sign of Haku. "H-Hinata-chan, can y-you see him?" Naruto asked, darting his eyes from side to side.

Not wanting to waste any chakra, Hinata looked around without her Byakugan activated. They both saw Haku morph into one of those ice mirrors, but in the blink of an eye, he was gone. But when she activated her Byakugan, she was horrified to discover that all of the ice mirrors were being held up by chakra, which rendered her Byakugan useless. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun," Hinata apologized, reaching into one of her pouches and pulling out a shuriken, "but I can't spot him anywhere."

"That's because you both are trapped in my special jutsu." Naruto and Hinata whirled to where the familiar voice came from, and saw Haku, standing at the far end of the ice dome. He had his arms folded across his chest. When Naruto and Hinata turned to face him, Haku sighed. "There is no point in trying to escape. When you fall prey to my Crystal Ice Mirrors, there is no hope of escaping it."

"Oh yeah?" Hinata growled, hurling her shuriken at Haku. But before it could reach him, Haku stepped back and morphed into the ice mirror. The shuriken merely bounced off the hard ice, leaving Haku virtually unharmed. Getting annoyed, Hinata activated her Byakugan and charged. "Take this!" Hinata dashed in and sent a chakra filled palm strike right at the crystal mirror. But when her attack connected, she was shocked to discover two things. One, her Jyuuken attack had absolutely no effect on the ice mirror. And two, Haku was gone. "Where did he.." Hinata began. But before she could finish, a senbon flew in out of nowhere and flew past her face. She let out a hiss of pain, reaching up to learn that there was a nasty cut on her cheek.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto cried as he forgot about Haku and rushed to her aid. "A-are you okay, H-Hinata-chan?" Before she could answer, another senbon flew in from behind Naruto and struck him right in the calf, causing him to let out a cry of agony before falling to the ground.

"Naruto-kun!" Enraged, Hinata pulled out a handful of kunai with explosive tags attached to them and hurled all of them in the direction the senbon came from. When the shuriken struck the mirrors, they all exploded. Hinata dropped to her knees to help Naruto, not bothering to look to see what damage she might have caused. "Naruto-kun, are you alright?" she asked, slowly pulled the thrown needle from Naruto's leg.

"Y-yeah, I th-think so," he hissed, squinting his eyes because of the stinging pain. Hinata ripped one of her jacket's sleeves off, and wrapped it around Naruto's punctured leg. It was almost as if she had forgotten they were in the middle of a battle of life and death. "Naruto-kun? Can you still walk?"

Wanting to know that for himself, Naruto reached up and wrapped his arm around Hinata's shoulders. She lifted both of them up, and gently sat him down on both legs. But Naruto immediately hissed in pain and dropped to one knee. The senbon left his leg in extreme pain, making it excruciatingly painful for him to stand.

'Th-this is bad,' Naruto thought, looking from side to side. 'If we d-don't do something, we're going to d-die.' Thinking quickly, Naruto made a single hand-sign. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" In a matter of no time, the entire dome was filled with shadow clones of Naruto. "H-Hinata-chan," he moaned, trying to stand up again, "wh-while my clones are d-distracting Haku, we sh-should try to e-escape."

"Good idea Naruto-kun," Hinata replied. "We'll get out of here an..."

**POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!**

Hinata's sentence was interrupted by the sound of Naruto's shadow clones disappearing in puffs of smoke. The two turned to see senbon raining down upon all of the shadow clones from every perceivable direction. "I told you there was no escaping," Haku hissed, morphing out from the crystal mirror directly behind them. All of Naruto's shadow clones were destroyed, leaving only the senbon embedded in the ground once the smoke dissipated. "Your decision to fight me inside this dome was the worst and last mistake you two will ever make."

_**Back with Kurenai, Chouji and Zabuza….**_

Thanks to Chouji's help, Kurenai was able to wear Zabuza down. Now, the infamous Mist ninja was on his knees, covered in bruises and gasping for breath. Whenever he would go after one, the other would immediately find a way to get in a solid strike. Zabuza wasn't even able to perform any jutsu, because Kurenai and Chouji wouldn't allow it. Now, Kurenai was behind Zabuza, with a kunai pressed up against Zabuza's throat. And Chouji was standing in front, with both of his massive arms raised up into the air, ready the crush Zabuza at a moment's notice. "What kind of jutsu is Haku using?" Kurenai hissed, slowly pressing the blade into Zabuza's neck.

But despite the predicament he was in, the "Mist Demon" let out a cruel chuckle. "That is Haku's Kekkei Genkai," he answered, refusing to cease his laughter. "You see, my dear Kurenai, Haku is quite a _unique _young lad. He has the ability to manipulate ice at will. And thanks to my supervision and training, we've came up with this move called the _Crystal Ice Mirror Jutsu_." When both Chouji and Kurenai threatened to end his life, Zabuza continued. "Haku is _unique_ because he possesses the ability to morph into any form of solid ice. And, with intense training, he became able to teleport from one ice mirror to another in the blink of an eye… Well, he doesn't _really_ teleport. But he switches from spot to spot so fast, he might as well be teleporting." Kurenai's eyes went wide with fear when she looked back at her two students. When Chouji looked back, what he saw almost caused him to throw up.

_**Back with Naruto and Hinata…**_

"N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata and Naruto were in really bad shape. Hinata was on her knees, with large needles sticking out of her shoulders, arms and legs. There were a couple of new cuts on her face from thrown senbon. But she was more concerned about the boy who was laying in front of her. Naruto was pretty beat up. He had three senbon stuck in his legs, a senbon in each of his forearms. And one in his left shoulder, almost piercing his neck. Naruto's breathing was shallow, and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. So Hinata was trying her best to keep him awake. "N-Naruto-kun, please st-stay awake," she whispered, with tears threatening to fall from her white eyes. "W-we'll make it th-through this. But you h-have to stay a-awake."

"I'm sorry it has to be this way, Hinata Hyuuga." Hinata looked up to see Haku, standing no more than ten feet away from them, fidgeting with a couple of needles in one hand. He had his other hand in his pocket, and was leaning against the side of the ice dome. Hinata stared at the masked boy with a hate-filled glare. "But this is the way of the ninja. We are here only to serve others. You serve your village and Hokage, and I serve Zabuza."

Finally gaining enough energy, Naruto slowly opened his eyes. He gazed up at Hinata, and coughed violently. "H-Hinata-chan," he choked, coughing up a little blood in the process. Hinata looked down at him, with tears slowly falling from her eyes. "A-are you o-okay, H-Hinata-chan?" Hinata reached down, and pulled Naruto onto her lap. "I-I can't move," he whispered, as blood slowly started to fall down the side of his mouth. "H-Hinata…. Y-you need to e-escape. Please… be-before you die."

Hinata shook her head. "No Naruto-kun. I s-said we'd make it out t-together. And that's wh-what we're going to…"

"No you won't," Haku growled, flinging two senbon into Hinata's chest.

Hinata let out a gasp of pain when the two senbon struck her chest. Naruto looked up in horror, having just witnessed everything. As blood started soaking through Hinata's jacket, her body suddenly went limp.

_**With Kurenai, Chouji and Zabuza….**_

Kurenai and Chouji was horrified at what they just saw. They had just witnessed Hinata Hyuuga, the loudest and friendliest kunoichi they've ever met, get struck down by Haku's senbon. It was clear, even from where they were standing that the needles struck something vital. They watched as Hinata's body fell to the ground next to Naruto. "HINATA!" Kurenai and Chouji cried out.

_**Back With Naruto and Hinata….**_

Naruto watched as Hinata fell to her side. She was laying right next to him, looking down at him with half opened eyes and blood dripping from her mouth. "N-Nar-Naruto-kun," she spoke, her voice only a little louder than a whisper. Tears stained Naruto's eyes as he used every scrap of strength he had to pull himself to his knees. He gently turned Hinata onto her back, so that she was looking up at him. "I-I'm sorry, N-Naruto-kun," she continued. "I-I wish I c-could have d-done more to s-save us. And I-I'm so-sorry that I c-couldn't live t-to see you b-become H-Hokage." Even when she was impaled with needles, even though she could barely keep her eyes open, Hinata Hyuuga cracked a small smile. "I'm sorry that you h-had to be m-miserable y-your whole life. I w-wish I could have h-helped you." But soon, Hinata's breathing became harder and harder to hear. And eventually, after shedding one last tear, Hinata's eyes finally drifted shut.

Hinata Hyuuga was dead.

As he looked upon the lifeless body of his best friend, Naruto slowly reached down and shook her shoulder. "H-Hinata-chan," he whispered, tears running down his face. She didn't answer. He tried again, but this time, Naruto reached down and put one arm underneath her back and one hand behind her head to lift her up. "H-Hinata-chan…. P-please, wake up." But it was as Naruto feared. Hinata was dead. "No… Please, not her," Naruto cried, pulling Hinata in and held her close to him. "No… No…"

Suddenly, something inside Naruto snapped. Without warning, blood red chakra shared radiating off of Naruto's body. Haku watched as all of the senbon that were embedded in Naruto's body slowly started to slide out and fall to the ground. 'What the hell?' he though, as he pulled out another senbon and flung it at the grief stricken boy. But to Haku's surprise, when the senbon touched the barrier of red chakra surrounding Naruto, it was immediately repelled before it could even touch him. 'Wh-what on earth is he?'

Slowly, Naruto stood up with Hinata cradled in his arms. He just stood there, with his back to Haku. But soon the red chakra that was merely surrounding him was swirling around him like a hurricane. Naruto's ocean blue eyes suddenly changed to crimson, and resembled the eyes of a fox. Slowly, his short fingernails grew into razor sharp claws. Naruto's canines slowly grew, almost growing twice their normal length. His whisker birthmarks became darker and thicker than before.

Haku was slowly backing away, fearing what was taking place before his eyes. He had thrown all the senbon he had with him at Naruto, but like before, all the senbon were repelled by the red chakra. But when he was about to morph into a mirror, Naruto was suddenly gone. 'Where is he?' Haku thought, looking around frantically.

"_**YOU!"**_ All of a sudden, Naruto came crashing through the crystal mirror Haku was about to morph into, and delivered a powerful punch directly into Haku's face. With his mask being shattered on impact, he was sent flying through the air, and slammed up against another mirror. He fell to the ground, with blood pouring from his nose. Then Haku looked up, and looked upon the face of his assailant.

Naruto glared down at the terrified Haku. _**"You…. You killed her," **_he growled, pointing at Haku. _**"You killed Hinata-chan! She was the kit's closest friend and you KILLED her!" **_The red chakra was still swirling around Naruto wildly, taking the senbon that were stuck in the ground and sending them into the air. _**"You just made the biggest mistake of your life, Haku," **_the possessed boy continued, dropping onto all fours, _**"because now, you've got Kyuubi no Kitsune to worry about! Now DIIIIIIIIIE!"**_

_**To Be Continued….**_

Aw snap! Shit is definitely about to hit the fan, isn't it? I know, this is sort of the same scenario in all my NaruHina stories, but I'll try to mix it up in the next chapter, I promise. But enough about that. How did you all enjoy it? I hope it was worth the wait. And I hope the quality was also up to standards. It may be a while before I update this story again, since I have a butt-load of other stories to update as well. But I hope that this chapter with be sufficient. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I look forward to hearing what you all thought of it. Mr. Alaska, out!


	14. WARNING

WARNING! WARNING! I WANT ALL READERS TO READ THIS VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE!

FanFiction is cracking down! Rated M stories that contain sexual content and/or violence, FanFiction plans on deleting it and/or terminating your accounts! I urge you all! The only rating where stories can have those things is rated MA, but they stopped that rating on 2002! I want you all to go to "Support" and send them an e-mail about how they should reinstate rated MA! Please, for the sake of FanFiction! Help stop the madness!


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